Senators sign "open letter" to Iranian leaders

Senate Republicans released an open letter to Iran’s leadership on Monday explaining that any nuclear arrangement reached without the approval of Congress could be revoked by the next president “with the stroke of a pen.”

President Barack Obama sharply criticized the letter, saying that the 47 Republican signatories were making “common cause with the hardliners in Iran.”

The one-page letter, addressed to the “Leaders of the Islamic Republic of Iran,” noted that “you may not fully understand our constitutional system.”

“We will consider any agreement regarding your nuclear-weapons program that is not approved by the Congress as nothing more than an executive agreement between President Obama and Ayatollah Khamenei,” the letter reads. “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.”

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammed Javad Zarif said the “unprecedented” letter was nothing more than a “propaganda ploy.”

“I wish to enlighten the authors that if the next administration revokes any agreement with ‘the stroke of a pen,’ as they boast, it will have simply committed a blatant violation of international law,” Zarif added.

The letter was organized by freshman Sen. Tom Cotton (R, Ark.). Seven Republican senators did not sign it, including Bob Corker (R., Tenn.), the new chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee who has proposed legislation seeking greater Congressional oversight over any nuclear deal reached with Iran.