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Unprecedented Treason: Republicans Pen Letter To Iran's Leaders to Sabotage Obama's Nuclear Peace Deal

Unprecedented Treason: Republicans Pen Letter To Iran's Leaders to Sabotage Obama's Nuclear Peace Deal

In an unprecedented and treasonous move, 47 Republican Senators have sent a warning to Iran’s leaders via an open letter, signed by politicians such as Ted Cruz and Rand Paul, cautioning that if Iran dares to make a deal with President Obama promising not to develop a nuclear weapon, the deal would be worthless after Obama leaves the White House and Republicans can sabotage it.

You might be asking yourself, since when do Republicans like nuclear weapons? It seems strange that our conservative political party would try to sabotage such an agreement. Previously, Republicans such as Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush were not only open to negotiations regarding nuclear weapons, but they signed off on those agreements. Adding insult to injury, Republicans have spent the last few years scaremongering about Iran’s “nuclear threat”, but now that Pres. Obama is about to get them to sign an agreement to stop them from developing nuclear capability, they are hellbent on sabotaging it.

Well, it seems that Republicans just aren’t thinking clearly nowadays. Noam Chomsky, a respected political commentator, philosopher, and professor at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, pretty much summed the Republican party up in a recent interview with Democracy Now:

“For the Republicans in Congress, there’s another interest—namely, to undermine anything that Obama, you know, the entity Christ, might try to do. Their goal for the last years has simply been to undermine anything that Obama might do, in an effort to regain power and serve their primary constituency, which is the very wealthy and the corporate sector.”

This couldn’t be any more apparent than with this new stunt. The Republican Party’s treasonous letter not only tries to sabotage the agreement, but also attempts to give Congress authority in the matter. The letter reads:

“It has come to our attention while observing your nuclear negotiations with our government that you may not fully understand our constitutional system … Anything not approved by Congress is a mere executive agreement. 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.”

Here’s the letter in full, below. If you’d like to see which Republicans signed it, click here.

Senate
Those in support of the peaceful negotiations between Obama and Iran aren’t worried, confident that this 10 to 15-year deal – which is nearly finished – will be difficult to change and cancel. However, the Republicans are willing to do anything to stop it and have latched onto the fact that President Obama has been facilitating this negotiation with executive action and zero consultation of Congress – something that has raised concern for Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Bob Corker explained, “The supreme leader has said publicly that he is concerned that if he enters into an agreement that the very next president is going to change that agreement.”
And that’s exactly why the Republicans wrote this letter. Senator Tom Cotton, who organized the letter, said:
“Iran’s ayatollahs need to know before agreeing to any nuclear deal that … any unilateral executive agreement is one they accept at their own peril.”
One particular Republican lawmaker made it perfectly clear that he and his fellow conservatives have no intention of cooperating with the President on this matter:
“If the deal is not submitted to Congress, I and many others will make clear that Barack Obama will be in office for 23 months and I will be in office for 6 years. And the Iranians should take that into their calculation as they negotiate with Barack Obama’s team.”
Already, GOP contenders are leveraging this issue for their 2016 campaigns. Last month, Jeb Bush spoke out against the negotiations during a speech at the Chicago Council. Rick Perry has also called the deal “An arms control agreement that excludes our Congress, damages our security and endangers our allies has to be reconsidered by any future president.”
Many people have seen this letter as a completely unacceptable and frankly, embarrassing move on the Republicans’ part. In an article for NBC, Chuck Todd, Mark Murray and Carrie Dann wrote:
“87% of the Senate GOP caucus signed this letter. It’s stunning. And it’s a rebuke on an international stage that doesn’t really have a precedent. Imagine Democrats micro-managing the START talks in the 80s by sending an open letter to Gorbachev? It just wouldn’t have been viewed as an acceptable political move while the talks were still happening.”
It seems that no matter what President Obama has tried to do during his presidency, he’s been fighting an uphill battle with people who are hellbent on working against him regardless of whether it makes sense or not. It should be noted, however, that 7 Republican senators did NOT sign Cotton’s letter – and those level-headed individuals are Lamar Alexander, Susan Collins, Bob Corker, Dan Coats, Jeff Flake, Lisa Murkowski, and Thad Cochran. It’s good to know that not everyone in Congress has lost their minds yet.
Colin Taylor
Opinion columnist and former editor-in-chief of Occupy Democrats. He graduated from Bennington College with a Bachelor's degree in history and political science. He now focuses on advancing the cause of social justice and equality in America.

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