“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?” Clinton said on Tuesday.
Clinton argued that the letter’s signatories were either trying to be helpful to the Iranians or harmful to the US President Barack Obama at a time when he is in the midst of high-stakes international diplomacy.
US Vice President Joe Biden also condemned the letter on Monday, and warned that scuttling a peaceful resolution on the Iran nuclear program would be a “dangerous mistake.”
On March 9, 47 Republican Senators sent an open letter addressed to leading Iranian officials, saying that a possible nuclear agreement between Iran and the international community could collapse upon President Obama’s departure from office in 2017 and if the US Congress does not ratify the agreement.
The P5+1 negotiators, representing five permanent UN Security Council members — China, Russia, the United States, the United Kingdom, France plus Germany — have set the preliminary nuclear deal for the end of the March. A deadline for concluding a long-term comprehensive nuclear deal has been set for July, 2015.
