Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., is the author of a letter to Iran’s government, signed by 46 other Republican senators, warning against a nuclear deal with Obama. (Danny Johnston/AP)
An already heated battle between the White House and Republicans over negotiations to curtail Iran’s nuclear program grew more tense Monday when 47 Republican senators sent a letter to Iran designed to kill any potential deal.
The White House responded by accusing the Republicans of conspiring with Iranian hardliners, who oppose the delicate negotiations, and suggested that their goal was to push the U.S. into a military conflict.
“I think it’s somewhat ironic to see some members of Congress wanting to make common cause with the hardliners in Iran,” Obama said a few hours after the letter was made public. “It’s an unusual coalition.”
The letter, written by Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.), suggests that any deal between President Obama and the Iranian leadership would amount to only an “executive agreement” that could undone by Congress or a future president. “The next president could revoke such an executive agreement with the stroke of a pen and future Congresses could modify the terms of the agreement at any time,” the letter states.
The Republican outreach to Tehran’s leaders comes at a critical juncture in the negotiations over the country’s nuclear program. Obama has said that Iran must agree to the outline of an accord by the end of March or further talks would be pointless.
President Obama says it was "somewhat ironic" that Republican senators wrote a letter to Iranian leaders warning them about a potential nuclear deal with the U.S. (Reuters)
It also comes only a week after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu denounced the Obama administration’s nuclear negotiations in a rousing speech before a joint meeting of Congress. Netanyahu spoke at the invitation of House Speaker John A. Boehner (R-Ohio) who didn’t consult with the White House or Democrats in Congress before issuing the invitation.
[Netanyahu says U.S. is on verge of ‘bad deal’ with Iran over nuclear program]
The White House derided that invitation as a breach of traditional protocol designed to undercut the president’s ability to conduct foreign policy. On Monday, White House spokesman Earnest described Cotton’s letter a “continuation” of a partisan strategy designed to push the U.S. into a military conflict with Iran that would, at best, delay the Iranian program for only a few years.
“The rush to war or at least the rush to the military option that many Republicans are advocating is not at all in the best interest of the United States,” he said
The deal being negotiated with Iran would limit its capacity to enrich uranium to the point that, if Iranian leaders decided to kick out inspectors, it would take them at least a year to produce enough fuel for a bomb.
Iran would also have to commit to intrusive inspections by the International Atomic Energy Agency over the course of the agreement. The United States initially asked Iran to agree to a 15-20 year limit on its nuclear program. Iran has pressed for a shorter period.
In an interview with CBS News that aired Sunday, Obama suggested that a deal could be imminent. “I think it is fair to say that there is an urgency because we now have been negotiating for well over a year,” he said.
Cotton, an Iraq war veteran and national security hawk, characterized his letter as a remedial civics lesson designed to educate Iran’s mullahs on the limits of presidential power. “Many Iran experts say that Iran’s leaders don’t understand our Constitution,” Cotton said in an interview with Fox News Channel.
Cotton tweeted his letter at Iranian officials and encouraged Democrats, including presumptive presidential front-runner Hillary Clinton, to add their signatures.
“We already have four senators on the letter who were thinking about running for president,” said Cotton, later adding, “I’ve spoken privately with other presidential candidates who might join us.”
The letter drew wide-spread derision from Democrats who blasted it as an amateurish attempt to torpedo the negotiations, which are nearing a critical juncture.
“This is not a time to undermine our commander in chief purely out of spite,” Senate Minority Leader Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.) said Monday afternoon in an impassioned 10-minute speech attacking the Republican intervention. “We should always have robust debate about foreign policy but it’s unprecedented for one political party to directly intervene in an international negotiation with the sole goal of embarrassing the president of the United States.”
Other Democrats agreed. “This letter only serves one purpose—to destroy an ongoing negotiation to reach a diplomatic agreement in its closing days,” said Sen Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), the ranking Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee.
Rep. Adam Schiff (Calif.), the ranking Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, said in a tweet that he was “beyond appalled” by the letter.
It’s unclear what impact the letter will have on the delicate negotiations. Some prominent Republicans, including Sen. Bob Corker, (R-Tenn.) the Senate Foreign Relations Committee chairman, declined to sign Cotton’s letter. An aide to the senator said he’s focused on building support for a bipartisan bill that would require Congress to review any nuclear agreement with Iran. Iran’s foreign minister, meanwhile, dismissed the letter as a “mostly a propaganda ploy.”
Greg Jaffe covers the White House for The Washington Post, where he has been since March 2009.
Sean Sullivan has covered national politics for The Washington Post since 2012.
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