Former secretary of state Hillary Clinton has condemned an open letter from Republican senators to Iran, saying their warning that the US could renege on a nuclear deal was “out of step” with the “traditions of American leadership”.

Clinton’s comments at a press conference at the United Nations suggested that the letter from the 47 senators – aimed at derailing nuclear negotiations – encroached on the president’s authority to shape US foreign policy. The purpose of the letter, Clinton argued, was either “to be helpful to the Iranians or harmful to the commander-in-chief”.

“The president and his team are in the midst of intense negotiation,” she began, adding that the aim of the talks was to prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear bomb.

“Now reasonable people can disagree about what exactly it will take to accomplish this objective and we all must judge any final agreement on its merits but the recent letter from Republican senators was out of step with the best traditions of American leadership and one has to ask what was the purpose of this letter?

“Either these senators were trying to be helpful to the Iranians or harmful to the commander-in-chief in the midst of high-stakes international diplomacy. Either answer does discredit to the letter’s signatories.”

Earlier on Tuesday, Tom Cotton, a freshman senator from Arkansas who drafted the letter, invited likely presidential candidates to sign it, telling CNN he would welcome “even Hillary Clinton” as a signatory.

“I suspect she might have reservations about this ill-fated nuclear deal with Iran as well,” he said.

The Obama administration denounced the letter almost immediately on Monday, accusing Republicans of undermining the constitution and indulging in a “rush to war”. President Obama said the 47 Republican signatories wanted “to make common cause with the hardliners in Iran”.



Iran’s foreign minister, Mohammad Javad Zarif, criticised the Republican letter in a statement that was equal parts surprise and mockery toward the senators. Zarif expressed amazement that Republicans would try to circumvent the president by writing to a foreign government, and scorn for what he described as the senators’ ignorance of international and American law.



US vice-president Joe Biden said the letter was “expressly designed to undercut a sitting president in the midst of sensitive international negotiations”.

It was “beneath the dignity of the institution I revere”, Biden said in a statement.

In the past Clinton has taken relatively conservative positions on Iran. As recently as last year she said she preferred Iran have “no enrichment” capabilities, in accordance with the hardline stance of the Israeli prime minister, Binyamin Netanyahu. Enrichment of uranium is a process necessary to produce weapons-grade nuclear material.

“Contrary to [Iran’s] claim, there is no such thing as a right to enrich. This is absolutely unfounded,” Clinton told the Atlantic.

She said that a “fallback position would be such little enrichment that they could not break out”.

Clinton suggested then that neither negotiations to set strict limits on Iran nor Israel’s zero-enrichment stance were “unrealistic”, but did not espouse either with enthusiasm. “‘No’ is my preference,” she said.



















