Butting in on foreign policy

Last week we saw the President of Israel lecture Congress about the evils of any deal with Iran. This week, it's the Senators trying to directly scuttle the Administration's foreign policy before any sort of a deal is on the table. Forty-seven Republican senators sent a letter to the Iranian leaders telling them to lay off signing a deal with us. The last time such a usurpation of powers by the Legislature was in 1979 and it was only the second time this had occurred. 

The Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif had a few interesting comments about the letter: 

• “In our view, this letter has no legal value and is mostly a propaganda ploy,” he said in comments carried by Iranian media. “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 even of the prospect of an agreement that they resort to unconventional methods, unprecedented in diplomatic history.”

• “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.”

Furthermore, he added that the deal is being negotiated as a multilateral agreement between Iran and the P5+1 countries -- the United States, China, Russia, France, the United Kingdom, and Germany -- and not a bilateral treaty between Washington and Tehran. Rather than go to the Senate for ratification. Ergo, the final deal will go to the Security Council for final approval.

It's just another indication of the idiocy of our leaders. We should have a recall.