The letter is the latest in a series of attempts by Congress Republicans to shut down a nuclear deal between the two countries in which Obama has advocated against additional sanctions on Iran, while US Republican and Israeli lawmakers say the proposed deal allows for too much nuclear power for the Islamic Republic. (AFP/File)
by JPost
A group of Republican senators has written a letter to the Iranian leadership warning that any nuclear deal Tehran signs with the current US administration will not necessarily be honored after President Barack Obama leaves office.
The letter, first reported by Bloomberg on Sunday, was initiated by Senator Tom Cotton and signed by 47 Republicans, including Ted Cruz, Marco Rubio, Rand Paul, Mitch McConnell and Orin Hatch.
The letter is the latest effort by Congress to gain some control over an emerging deal with Iran, which some senators see as allowing the Islamic Republic to retain too much of its nuclear infrastructure, a view that was expressed by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in his speech to Congress last week.
“It has come to our attention while observing your nuclear negotiations with our government that you may not fully understand our constitutional system … Anything not approved by Congress is a mere executive agreement,” the letter states.
The senators point out to the Iranian leadership that any international treaty not approved by Congress “is a mere executive agreement.”
While President Obama is limited to two terms in office and will leave the White House in January 2017, “most of us will remain in office well beyond then – perhaps decades,” the senators state.
“We will consider any agreement regarding your nuclear-weapons program that is not approved by the 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 any time,” they add.
