Pages

Search This Blog

Tuesday, March 10, 2015

CFR Daily News Brief: President Rejects Senators' Letter to Iran

Council on Foreign Relations
March 10, 2015
Daily News Brief

Blog Facebook Twitter Linkedin Youtube RSS
TOP OF THE AGENDA
President Rejects Senators' Letter to Iran
The White House criticized (NYT) an open letter from U.S. Senate Republicans warning Iran against reaching a deal with the U.S. president, accusing them of undercutting foreign policy negotiations. The letter was signed by forty-seven of the Senate's fifty-four Republicans and cautions that any deal negotiated with the Obama administration could be nullified (Al Jazeera) by Congress once Obama’s term in office expires. Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif said that the letter had no legal value and he dismissed it as mostly a "propaganda ploy" (Hill). The letter follows Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's address before a joint session of Congress in which he argued against the nuclear deal being negotiated with Iran. The United States, the four other UN Security Council permanent members, and Germany are negotiating with Iran on a framework agreement that faces an end of March deadline. 
ANALYSIS
"A vote of Congress would be needed to permanently lift crucial sanctions, including ones that have crippled Tehran’s financial sector. And Republican members of Congress say they have been shut out, left with little choice other than to alert the Iranians that though they appear powerless this moment, ultimately Capitol Hill’s support will be necessary for any deal Iran forges with diplomats," write Burgess Everett and Michael Crowley in Politico.
"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. There’s no sign yet that Obama believes this—or, if he does, that he plans to engage Congress in any meaningful way," writes Josh Rogin at Bloomberg View.
"The United States, Britain, France, China, Russia and Germany can take credit for an interim deal that has sharply limited Iran’s nuclear activities, and they are on the verge of a more permanent agreement that could further reduce the risk of Iran’s developing a nuclear weapon. Congress needs to think hard about the best way to support a verifiable nuclear deal and not play political games that could leave America isolated, the sanctions regime in tatters and Iran’s nuclear program unshackled," writes the New York Times

No comments: