28 Mar 2024
Monday 9 March 2015 - 13:23
Story Code : 154589

Republicans warn Iran -- and Obama -- that deal won't last

[caption id="attachment_107851" align="alignright" width="226"]The new Republican-controlled Congress wants to poison the nuclear talks with Iran, Jim W. Dean says. The new Republican-controlled Congress wants to poison the nuclear talks with Iran, Jim W. Dean says.[/caption]

A group of 47 Republican senators has written anopen letterto Iran's leaders warning them that any nuclear deal they sign with President Barack Obama's administration wont last after Obama leaves office.

Organized by freshman Senator Tom Cotton and signed by the chamber's entire party leadership as well as potential 2016 presidential contenders Marco Rubio, Ted Cruz and Rand Paul, the letter is meant not just to discourage the Iranian regime from signing a deal but also to pressure the White House into giving Congress some authority over the process.

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 senators wrote. 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.

Arms-control advocates and supporters of the negotiationsarguethat the next president and the next Congress will have a hard time changing or canceling any Iran deal -- -- which isreportedlynear done -- especially if it is working reasonably well.

Many inside the Republican caucus, however, hope that by pointing out the long-term fragility of a deal with no congressional approval -- something Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has also noted -- the Iranian regime might be convinced to think twice. "Iran's ayatollahs need to know before agreeing to any nuclear deal that any unilateral executive agreement is one they accept at their own peril, Cotton told me.

The issue has already become part of the 2016 GOP campaign. Former Florida Governor Jeb Bushcame outagainst the negotiations in a speech at the Chicago Council last month. Former Texas Governor Rick Perryreleased a videocriticizing the negotiations and calling for Congressional oversight. An arms control agreement that excludes our Congress, damages our security and endangers our allies has to be reconsidered by any future president, Perry said.

Republicans also have a new argument to make in asserting their role in the diplomatic process: Vice President Joe Biden similarly insisted -- in aletterto then-Secretary of State Colin Powell -- on congressional approval for the Moscow Treaty on strategic nuclear weapons with Russia in 2002, when he was head of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

The new letter is the latest piece of an effort by Senators in both parties to ensure that Congress will have some say if and when a deal is signed. Senators Bob Corker, Lindsey Graham, Tim Kaine and the embattledBob Menendez have a bill pending that would mandate a Congressional reviewof the Iran deal, but Republicans and Democrats have been bickering over how to proceed in the face of a threatened presidential veto.

Still, Senators from both parties are united in an insistence that, at some point, the administration will need their buy-in for any nuclear deal with Iran to succeed. Theres no sign yet that Obama believes this -- or, if he does, that he plans to engage Congress in any meaningful way.

This article was written by Josh Rogin for Bloomberg View on March 8, 2015. Josh Rogin is a Bloomberg View columnist who writes about national security and foreign affairs. He has previously worked for the Daily Beast, Newsweek, Foreign Policy magazine, the Washington Post, Congressional Quarterly and Asahi Shimbun. You can also find him here @joshrogin
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