Republicans in open letter to Iran: Don't assume we'll uphold nuclear deal

(Image credit: Illustrated | Luka Banda/iStock, gonin/iStock)

published 9 March 2015

Top Senate Republicans have issued an open letter to Iran suggesting that any nuclear deal struck with the Obama administration could be short-lived.

Drafted by Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) and signed by 47 GOP lawmakers in all, the letter Congress-splains the Constitution — "we are writing to bring to your attention two features of our Constitution" — to note that the legislature has significant oversight over international treaties. Congress ratifies treaties and Senators can serve indefinitely, whereas president's have a maximum eight-year tenure, the letter, obtained by Bloomberg, notes.

What these two constitutional provisions mean is that 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 at any time. [Bloomberg]

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Jon Terbush is an associate editor at TheWeek.com covering politics, sports, and other things he finds interesting. He has previously written for Talking Points Memo, Raw Story, and Business Insider.

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