Biden Rebukes Senate Republicans Over Letter to Iran

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/11/us/biden-rebukes-senate-republicans-over-letter-to-iran.html

Version 0 of 1.

WASHINGTON — The White House has berated Senate Republicans for writing to Iran’s leaders warning them against a nuclear agreement with President Obama, saying their letter skirts the Constitution and sends a dangerous and conflicting message.

In a lengthy and harshly worded statement released late Monday, Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr., a Senate veteran of more than three decades and a former chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee, said he could recall no other instance in which senators had written to the leaders of another country, “much less a foreign adversary,” to say the president had no authority to strike a deal with them.

“This letter, in the guise of a constitutional lesson, ignores two centuries of precedent and threatens to undermine the ability of any future American president, whether Democrat or Republican, to negotiate with other nations on behalf of the United States,” Mr. Biden said. “Honorable people can disagree over policy. But this is no way to make America safer or stronger.”

His statement was the strongest response yet from the White House to an open letter, signed by most Senate Republicans, that was addressed on Monday to “leaders of the Islamic Republic of Iran.” The missive, a rare direct congressional intervention into diplomatic negotiations, declared that any agreement without legislative approval could be reversed by the next president “with the stroke of a pen.”

The letter appeared aimed at unraveling a framework agreement even as American and international negotiators grew close to reaching one. Mr. Obama, working with leaders of five other world powers, argues that the pact would be the best way to keep Iran from obtaining a nuclear bomb.

But critics from both parties say that such a deal would be a dangerous charade that would leave Iran with the opportunity to eventually build weapons that could be used against Israel or other adversaries. They also argue that such an agreement should have congressional approval.

Mr. Biden said on Monday that the signers of the letter were working to thwart a diplomatic agreement that was the only viable means by which to restrain Tehran’s nuclear ambitions.

“The decision to undercut our president and circumvent our constitutional system offends me as a matter of principle,” Mr. Biden said. “As a matter of policy, the letter and its authors have also offered no viable alternative to the diplomatic resolution with Iran that their letter seeks to undermine.”

“It would be a dangerous mistake to scuttle a peaceful resolution, especially while diplomacy is still underway,” Mr. Biden said.