GOP LETTER
Iranians raise issue twice as negotiations have 2 weeks left
a topic at nuclear talks in Switzerland.
LAUSANNE, Switzerland — Iranian diplomats twice confronted their American counterparts about an open letter from Republican senators who warned that any nuclear deal could expire the day President Barack Obama leaves office, a senior U.S. official said Monday.
The official, noting the administration’s warnings when the letter first surfaced, said the GOP intervention was a new issue in the tense negotiations facing an end-of-month deadline for a framework agreement.
The letter came up in nuclear talks Sunday between senior U.S. and Iranian negotiators, the official said, and the Iranians raised it again in discussions Monday led by Secretary of State John Kerry and Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif.
Zarif was quoted by Iranian state media after the meeting as saying the topics included the potential speed of a softening of U.S. economic sanctions and the new issue of the letter from the senators.
“It is necessary that the stance of the U.S. administration be defined about this move,” he was quoted as saying.
Kerry and Zarif met for nearly five hours in Lausanne, the start of several planned days of discussions. Most of the Iranians then departed for Brussels, where they were to meet with European negotiators.
“We’re still making progress, but there is a long way to go if we’re going to get there,” British Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond said after talks in Brussels with his French, German and Iranian counterparts plus European Union foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini.
Mogherini, who is negotiating with Iran on behalf of the world’s five nuclear powers and Germany, said all sides were aware how important it is to seal a good deal and it was not clear whether “a technical solution” to fill the remaining gaps can be found.
Ahead of the meeting, German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier urged his international partners and Iran to “seize this opportunity” of talks in Brussels and in Switzerland this week to finally clinch a deal.
In Lausanne, the U.S. official wouldn’t say how much time the sides spent talking about the letter drafted seven days ago by freshman Sen. Tom Cotton of Arkansas and signed by 46 other GOP senators.
The Iranians have called the letter a propaganda ploy, and Zarif joked last week that some U.S. legislators didn’t understand their own Constitution. The Obama administration has called the letter “ill-timed” and “ill-advised.”
In his maiden speech in the Senate on Monday, Cotton reiterated his view that the deal being discussed would pave Iran’s path to a nuclear bomb.
“Iran is an outlaw regime. … Unsurprising, Iran is only growing bolder and more aggressive as America retreats from the Middle East,” Cotton said, adding that Iranian leaders continue to call for Israel’s elimination and that Iran is meddling in other nations, including Syria and Iraq.
In the end, the talks and a potential agreement depend on Iran showing the world that its nuclear program is exclusively peaceful, said the U.S. official, who briefed reporters only on condition of anonymity.
The goal for a full agreement is the end of June.
Republicans argue that a deal would be insufficient and unenforceable, allowing Iran to eventually become a nuclear-armed state.
To that end, they’ve delivered a series of proposals to undercut or block an agreement, including ones that would require Senate sayso on a deal and order new sanctions against Iran while negotiations are underway.
Cotton’s letter, the administration and congressional Democrats argue, went further, interfering in the president’s execution of U.S. foreign policy. The letter warned Iranian leaders that any deal negotiated by the current administration could be tossed by Obama’s successor.
Obama and other officials insist they’re not going to make any deal that would allow Iran to acquire nuclear weapons.
The agreement taking shape would limit Iran’s uranium enrichment and other nuclear activity for at least a decade, with the restrictions slowly lifted over several years.
Washington and other world powers also would gradually scale back sanctions that have crippled the Iranian economy. Tehran says it is only interested in peaceful energy generation and medical research, but much of the world suspects it harbors nuclear weapons ambitions.
Kerry and Zarif plan to regroup in Lausanne today. The U.S. secretary of state is to return to Washington by week’s end for talks with Afghanistan’s leaders, and the Iranians plan to break for the Persian New Year.
Officials say talks might restart sometime next week, if necessary.
A deal would also require the approval of America’s negotiating partners: Britain, China, France, Germany and Russia. Information for this article was contributed by Lorne Cook of The Associated Press.