Senate GOP Letter To Iranian Leaders Borders On Treason

(The image above is of an open letter from 47 Senate Republicans to the leaders of Iran.)

President Obama (and Secretary of State John Kerry) are in the process of negotiating an agreement with Iran -- an agreement that would let Iran develop peaceful uses of nuclear energy, but keep them from developing nuclear weapons. This is an appropriate thing for the president to do, as it is the constitutional authority of the executive branch.

But the GOP in Congress is stepping all over this executive authority by trying to kill any agreement before it has even been reached. It started with the House Republicans. They by-passed the White House and invited Israeli President Netanyahu to speak to them -- knowing that he would try to undermine the president's negotiations. Now the Senate Republicans have joined their House counterparts. They wrote the above open letter to the leaders of Iran -- with the obvious intention of trying to undermine an agreement that hasn't been reached, and which they don't yet know what it entails.

If this is not treasonous behavior, then it certainly borders on it. Using foreign leaders (whether from Israel or Iran) to undermine the office of the president, if not treasonous, is at least un-American, un-constitutional, and very dangerous. The president is trying to avoid a war with Iran (which while probably started by Israel, would undoubtably include the United States). He should be given every opportunity to do that, without interference from Congress. Unfortunately, the GOP in both houses of Congress seem to be determined to march us into a new war (which we have no better chance of winning than the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan).

Both the White House and Iran have responded to this letter. White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest said:

I would describe this letter as a continuation of a partisan strategy to undermine the president’s ability to conduct foreign policy and advance our national security interests around the globe.

The fact is that we have heard Republicans for quite some time, including the principal author of this letter, make clear that their goal is to undermine these negotiations. Again, that is not a position that I am ascribing to Sen. Cotton, that is a position that he has strongly advocated. He described it as a feature of his strategy, not a bug.

I think the other thing that is notable here is that when you have a letter that is signed by forty-seven senators of the same party being sent to a leader of a foreign country, it raises some legitimate questions about the intent of the letter…It’s surprising to me there are some Republican senators who are seeking to establish a backchannel with hardliners in Iran to undermine an agreement with Iran and the international community.

And Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said:

 “I should bring one important point to the attention of the authors and that is, the world is not the United States, and the conduct of inter-state relations is governed by international law, and not by US domestic law. The authors may not fully understand that in international law, governments represent the entirety of their respective states, are responsible for the conduct of foreign affairs, are required to fulfil the obligations they undertake with other states and may not invoke their internal law as justification for failure to perform their international obligations.” 

The Iranian Foreign Minister added that “change of administration does not in any way relieve the next administration from international obligations undertaken by its predecessor in a possible agreement about Iran’s peaceful nuclear program.” He continued “I wish to enlighten the authors that if the next administration revokes any agreement with ‘the stroke of a pen,’ as they boast, it will have simply committed a blatant violation of international law.” 

Both have a point. Congress has overstepped its constitutional authority, and their actions have not made the world a safer place -- they have increased the danger. They need to get back to doing their own job, and let the president do his without interference.

Let me add, I don't believe the fear of Iran being whipped up by the congressional GOP is justified in the first place. First, there is no evidence that Iran is even trying to develop a nuclear weapon. And even if they did develop one, they would pose no danger to the United States (or Israel). If they had a nuclear weapon, they have no ability to deliver one in an attack on the United States -- and the United States has more nuclear weapons than any other country, and the ability to deliver them anywhere in the world on a moment's notice (and we have shown we will do that). The Iranians know that, and they are not suicidal. They also know that Israel has nuclear weapons, and would not be afraid to use them if threatened.

NOTE -- No Democrat signed this treasonous letter, and seven Republicans also refused to sign. Those seven Republicans are Lamar Alexander (Tennessee), Susan Collins (Maine), Bob Corker (Tennessee), Dan Coats (Indiana), Jeff Flake (Arizona), Lisa Murkowski (Alaska), and Rob Portman (Ohio). The other 47 Republicans signed it -- including presidential hopefuls Rubio, Cruz, and Paul.