Republicans’ attempt to ‘sabotage’ negotiations between western nations and Iran could escalate into military response, senators say

Prominent Senate Democrats have accused their Republican rivals of wanting to start a war with Iran on Tuesday, a day after conservative senators penned an open letter to Tehran.

Senators Bernie Sanders and Barbara Boxer said that the 47 signatories to the letter are trying to “sabotage” talks between western powers and Iran. Boxer described the Republicans’ letter as “bizarre, inappropriate” and a “desperate ploy to scuttle a comprehensive agreement” that she said is “in the best interests of the United States, Israel and the world”.

“It appears that for most of my Republican colleagues in the Senate, a war in Afghanistan and a war in Iraq were not enough,” said Sanders, who is an independent but caucuses with the Democratic Party, in a statement. “They now apparently want a war in Iran as well.” The Vermont senator called the letter “an outrage”.

On Monday, 47 of the Senate’s 54 Republicans signed an open letter to Iran that threatened the US could renege on any deal made with President Obama. “The next president could revoke such an executive agreement with the stroke of a pen,” the letter read.

Will the Republican letter to Iran torpedo the nuclear talks? Read more

The Illinois senator Dick Durbin, the second in command of Democrats in the Senate, also suggested that Republicans’ “cynical effort” increases the chances of outright war. “If these negotiations fail, a military response to Iran developing their nuclear capability becomes more likely,” he said.

“Republican senators should think twice about whether their political stunt is worth the threat of another war in the Middle East,” Durbin said.

Republican signatories – including Ted Cruz, Marco Rubio and presidential hopeful Rand Paul – have had a muted response even after Obama and Iran’s foreign minister have personally criticized the letter.

Jamal Abdi, policy director of the National Iranian American Council, said the letter is “one of two things: it’s either an attempt to sabotage negotiations or it’s a blatant political ploy to establish certain Republicans’ hawkish bona fides”.

Abdi said the letter highlights Obama’s weak cards at the negotiating table by pointing out that the US cannot guarantee comprehensive sanctions relief without Congress’s consent. “They’re saying the United States is going to write you a bad check, that check is going to bounce, and that makes the price of negotiating go higher,” he said.

But Abdi noted that Iranian negotiators “have a pretty sophisticated understanding” of the US political system and are already well aware of the president’s limits.

The Iranian foreign minister, Javad Zarif, responded to the senators on Monday with a similar suggestion. The letter’s authors apparently “not only do not understand international law,” Zarif wrote, “but are not fully cognizant of the nuances of their own constitution when it comes to presidential powers in the conduct of foreign policy”.

As chief executive responsible for shaping US foreign policy, Obama can suspend or temporarily waive sanctions, Abdi said, but “it’s an open question as to how forward-leaning he will be”.

“If he doesn’t take strong enough action to really suspend the financial sanctions and send a signal to key markets and key private entities, there’s a concern that nobody’s going to try to re-enter the country and nobody’s going to see the benefits,” Abdi said.

At that point, the debate inside Iran could again turn in favor of those who oppose the deal, and Abdi agreed with Obama’s assertion that the letter illustrates a “common cause with the hardliners in Iran” who oppose a deal.

“Even before these talks there was this symbiotic relationship between hardliners here and in Iran,” Abdi said. “The hawkish rhetoric by Iranians feeds the rhetoric of hawkish Republicans, and the front page of Kayhan” – a conservative Iranian paper – “reads like the ticker on Fox News,” he added.

“I think now you’re seeing an attempt at direct coordination, which is kind of amusing,” he said.



As a political maneuver, Abdi said the letter could be an attempt by Republicans to make inroads among Jewish and pro-Israel voters who have historically voted for Democrats. That strategy has only yielded small successes over the years, but also allows Republicans to show their own vehement support for Israel to hawkish and narrow interests such as casino billionaire Sheldon Adelson, who has become a major political donor for the party.