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| The front page of the NY Daily News today. The newspaper endorsed the Republican presidential candidate against Obama in 2008 |
(NOTE: We are taking a break from our usual subject matter of Asian Americans, racism and inequality to bring your attention to this developing story.)
Forty-seven Senate Republicans have sent a letter to Iran saying essentially that any agreement they make with President Obama would be overturned by the future Republican president or the GOP-controlled Congress.
The letter, authored by freshman Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Arkansas), reads: "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."
Here is the entire text of the letter.
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| Sen. Tom Cotton |
Here is the entire text of the letter.
Folks, to my mind, this is borderline treason along the same lines of former President Nixon's sabotaging peace talks with North Vietnam. Under the 1797 Logan Act, no private citizen can interfere with negotiations with a foreign country, or, as in this case, a nonbinding international agreement also involving Russia, France, China and Great Britain. These mutual agreements are standar in international relations to provide grounds for cooperation among nations.
“This kind of correspondence, which is an unprecedented and nondiplomatic action, in fact, tells us that the United States is not trustworthy,” Zarif told Iranian news agencies.
Disagreeing with Obama is one thing, but undermining the White House's attempts to broker a treaty is entirely unprecedented. This follows Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's speech before Congress last week, also broke new ground when Republican congressmen invited the foreign leader to speak in front of the legislators.
Congress' role in foreign policy is constitutionally quite limited. For over 200 years the president has been the "sole organ of the nation in its external relations, and its sole representative with foreign nations," said founding father John Marshall in an 1800 speech which was codified into law in 1936 by the U.S. Supreme Court.
The "sole organ" doctrine is based on the belief and the practice (until now) that the U.S. government needs to be a single voice when conducting foreign policy. Allowing Congress and the president to set foreign policies separate from each other could lead to chaos and the discrediting of U.S. credibility on the world stage.What is must the world's leaders think of this letter? What confidence does it give any foreign government negotiating with the U.S.? If America is seen as untrustworthy, would any treaty with the U.S. be worth a copper penny?
Zarif, who is a political moderate and educated in the U.S., appears to have seen through the GOP's political posturing. The tone of Zarif's response matched Cotton's condescending letter, which went viral in the Twitterverse, and even corrected Cotton's misinterpretation of the U.S. Constitution. Ironically, Cotton's letter may give ammunition to Iran's hardliners who are vehemently opposed to the talks. Certainly, the United States' bargaining position has been weakened.
To the 47 senators, if you disagree with the president, battle it out in the halls of Congress and the court of public opinion through the U.S. media, not by interjecting yourselves into sensitive negotiations, the details of which are still being hammered out.
At the very least: The senators who signed the letter should be embarrassed. At the most: They should be thrown out of office on the basis of treason.
According to the "New York Times," Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, who has been deeply involved in the negotiations with Secretary of State John Kerry and other leaders, said the letter suggested that the United States could not be trusted.
Even the conservative "Wall Street Journal" said in an editorial that the Republican's time could be better spend convincing the American public about the drawbacks of Obama's proposal instead of interfering with the already sensitive negotiations.
Even the conservative "Wall Street Journal" said in an editorial that the Republican's time could be better spend convincing the American public about the drawbacks of Obama's proposal instead of interfering with the already sensitive negotiations.
“This kind of correspondence, which is an unprecedented and nondiplomatic action, in fact, tells us that the United States is not trustworthy,” Zarif told Iranian news agencies.
Disagreeing with Obama is one thing, but undermining the White House's attempts to broker a treaty is entirely unprecedented. This follows Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's speech before Congress last week, also broke new ground when Republican congressmen invited the foreign leader to speak in front of the legislators.
Congress' role in foreign policy is constitutionally quite limited. For over 200 years the president has been the "sole organ of the nation in its external relations, and its sole representative with foreign nations," said founding father John Marshall in an 1800 speech which was codified into law in 1936 by the U.S. Supreme Court.
The "sole organ" doctrine is based on the belief and the practice (until now) that the U.S. government needs to be a single voice when conducting foreign policy. Allowing Congress and the president to set foreign policies separate from each other could lead to chaos and the discrediting of U.S. credibility on the world stage.What is must the world's leaders think of this letter? What confidence does it give any foreign government negotiating with the U.S.? If America is seen as untrustworthy, would any treaty with the U.S. be worth a copper penny?
Zarif, who is a political moderate and educated in the U.S., appears to have seen through the GOP's political posturing. The tone of Zarif's response matched Cotton's condescending letter, which went viral in the Twitterverse, and even corrected Cotton's misinterpretation of the U.S. Constitution. Ironically, Cotton's letter may give ammunition to Iran's hardliners who are vehemently opposed to the talks. Certainly, the United States' bargaining position has been weakened.
To the 47 senators, if you disagree with the president, battle it out in the halls of Congress and the court of public opinion through the U.S. media, not by interjecting yourselves into sensitive negotiations, the details of which are still being hammered out.
At the very least: The senators who signed the letter should be embarrassed. At the most: They should be thrown out of office on the basis of treason.
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