Republican senators steal foreign policy powers from Obama - Times of India

WASHINGTON: At the best of times, the US Capital is a fractious city, with political power, including on certain foreign policy matters, delicately split between the White House and Congress. On Monday though, the Republican-controlled Senate appeared to have breached a line in the sand by writing directly to the Iranian leadership warning it against any nuclear deal with the Obama administration.

In what was described as a "rare direct congressional intervention into diplomatic negotiations," 47 Republican Senators wrote an open letter to Iran's leaders saying in effect that they will be around long after Barack Obama leaves office in January 2017 and the next President, presumptively Republican, may not honor any deal the current administration reaches with Iran.

"President Obama will leave office in January 2017, while most of us will remain in office well beyond then — perhaps decades," the letter explaining US Constitutional provision reads. "What these two constitutional provisions mean is that we will consider any agreement regarding your nuclear-weapons program that is not approved by Congress as nothing more than an executive agreement between President Obama and Ayatollah Khamenei. 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."

Democrats, and indeed many analysts, were astonished and even shocked by what they see as a Republican transgression into a convention where the US President has always been deferred to in matters of high foreign policy issues despite the Senate's formidable powers. "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," Senate Democratic Minority Leader Harry Reid said, getting to the heart of the matter. "Do you so dislike President Obama that you would take this extraordinary step? Obviously so."

Obama himself was restrained, saying he is going ahead with negotiations with Iran despite Senate opposition. "I think it's somewhat ironic to see some members of Congress wanting to make common cause with the hard-liners in Iran," he said, adding, "It's an unusual coalition."

But his vice-president Joe Biden, a Senate lion himself, lit into his former colleagues, calling the GoP move "beneath the dignity of an institution I revere."

"This letter, in the guise of a constitutional lesson, ignores two centuries of precedent and threatens to undermine the ability of any future American President, whether Democrat or Republican, to negotiate with other nations on behalf of the United States. Honorable people can disagree over policy. But this is no way to make America safer or stronger," he said in a statement.

Biden countered the argument that any such major foreign policy deal needs Congressional approval by maintaining that Presidential prerogative is part of the "essential tools to the conduct of our foreign policy, and they ensure the continuity that enables the United States to maintain our credibility and global leadership even as Presidents and Congresses come and go." The diplomatic recognition of China, ending of the Vietnam War and Iran hostage crisis, all Republican initiatives, were done without congressional approval, he noted.

Aside from exposing the deep schism in Washington, the episode has also demonstrated the growing division in the US over Washington support to Israel and Israel's own ability now divide the US foreign policy establishment.

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