Zarif calls GOP letter a publicity stunt, without legal value

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif says a letter by US Republican senators to undermine the P5+1 group’s efforts to reach a nuclear agreement with Iran is just a publicity stunt without any legal value.

In an open letter to Iran on Monday signed by some 47 Republican senators, the lawmakers warned Tehran that any deal signed by the Obama administration must be approved by Congress or it could be abandoned by next president after Obama leaves office in January 2017.

The Iranian foreign minister told reporters on Monday in Tehran that the Republican letter has “no legal value and is mostly a propaganda ploy.”

Zarif said it appears to be an attempt to disrupt the nuclear talks underway between Iran and the P5+1 countries – the US, Britain, France, China, Russia, and Germany.

“It is very interesting that while negotiations are still in progress and while no agreement has been reached, some political pressure groups are so afraid of even the prospect of an agreement that they resort to unconventional methods, unprecedented in diplomatic history,” he said.

He added that the move indicates that people like Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who considers “peace as an existential threat, are opposed to any agreement, regardless of its content.”

Iran and the P5+1 group of states are holding negotiations to narrow their differences on the outstanding issues related to Tehran's nuclear program ahead of a July 1 deadline for the final agreement.

The top Iranian diplomat expressed astonishment that some members of the US Congress find it appropriate to write to leaders of another country against their own president.

He pointed out that the authors do not understand international law and the nuances of the US Constitution when it comes to presidential powers in the conduct of foreign policy.

"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 foreign minister said.

“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 fulfill the obligations they undertake with other states and may not invoke their internal law as justification for failure to perform their international obligations,” he continued.

Zarif concluded by saying that “the Islamic Republic of Iran has entered these negotiations in good faith and with the political will to reach an agreement, and it is imperative for our counterparts to prove similar good faith and political will in order to make an agreement possible.”

Meanwhile, White House spokesman Josh Earnest (pictured below) called the Republican letter as "the continuation of a partisan strategy to undermine the president's ability to conduct foreign policy."

Earnest said the Republican-controlled Congress is not playing a "role that our Founding Fathers envisioned for Congress to play when it comes to foreign policy."

The letter has also angered Democratic senators. "This is a cynical effort by Republican senators to undermine sensitive international negotiations. It weakens America's hand and highlights our political divisions to the rest of the world," said Richard Durbin, the Senate's number two Democrat.

AHT/GJH

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