WASHINGTON -- Iranian leaders "clearly have the message now" from a letter 47 Senate Republicans wrote warning that a future U.S. president or Congress could reverse any nuclear deal, the chief author said Tuesday.
President Barack Obama considers the Republican-led Congress to be a "nuisance," Sen. Tom Cotton of Arkansas said as he defended the letter after criticism from U.S. allies and lawmakers, including some fellow Republicans.
"This president views Congress as an afterthought," Cotton said. "Iran's leaders clearly have the message now, and I think it was important they got the message."
Cotton said he "absolutely" stands by the decision to address the March 9 letter to Iran's leaders.
The talks between Iran, the United States, Russia, China, Britain, France and Germany are aimed at reaching a formal pact limiting Tehran's ability to make an atomic weapon while easing punitive economic sanctions on the Islamic Republic.
White House officials and Democratic lawmakers have accused Cotton and his colleagues who signed the letter of undermining the efforts to get an agreement with Iran before an end-of-the-month deadline.
"That's because they know the offer is indefensible," Cotton, a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee and a former U.S. Army captain, said of the critics. He said the administration can't justify "the very bad deal that they're about to make."
Cotton and many other Republicans have demanded a complete dismantling of Iran's nuclear program, which the country says is for civilian purposes, such as power production. They oppose removing sanctions while Iran still has any nuclear capabilities.
Obama missed an opportunity to use congressional oversight as leverage in the talks, Cotton said.
"The president who was intent on driving a hard bargain and a bargain that would be lasting would have been telling his negotiating partners from the very beginning that Congress needs to approve any deal if any deal is going to be lasting," he said.
The president said last week that the lawmakers seemed to be "wanting to make common cause with the hard-liners in Iran." The White House and Democratic campaign organizations also have been highlighting newspaper editorials from around the country that denounced the letter.
At least two Republicans who signed it -- John McCain of Arizona and Ron Johnson of Wisconsin -- said last week that they would have approached the matter differently in retrospect.
Johnson said it may have been "a tactical error" to address the letter to Iranian leaders, rather than to Obama's administration or the American people. McCain, a prominent Republican voice on foreign affairs and national security, said an impending snowstorm in Washington short-circuited more measured consideration of the letter.
Cotton said he discussed the letter at two private sessions with fellow Republicans as well as in numerous one-on-one talks before its release.
The missive has escalated political rancor in Washington surrounding the Iran negotiations, complicating Foreign Relations Chairman Bob Corker's efforts to cobble together enough Democratic votes for a measure requiring congressional review of any Iran nuclear deal.
Republicans hold 54 seats in the Senate and 10 Democrats have said they'll support Corker's measure, though only after the end-of-the-month deadline passes for the current round of negotiations. That would be three votes short of the number needed to override a veto of the measure, which Obama has promised.
Corker, one of seven Senate Republicans who didn't sign the letter, said Tuesday that his panel may vote on his proposal March 25 or 26.
The Iranian delegation to nuclear talks in Switzerland raised concerns Sunday and again with U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry on Monday about the letter, according to a U.S. official, who declined to detail what was said and spoke on condition of anonymity under diplomatic protocol.
Meanwhile, a senior Iranian official suggested Tuesday that Iran was nearing a preliminary nuclear deal with the six world powers. U.S. officials said the sides had made progress but still had a ways to go in eliminating differences over what Iran has to do for a gradual end to sanctions.
If the negotiations fail to yield an agreement, Cotton said the potential use of military force to delay an Iranian nuclear program must be a credible option and "not just words the president mouths."
"But that would not be the first option," he said, adding that his first option would be tougher sanctions and confronting Iranian influence regionally.
Information for this article was contributed by Kathleen Hunter, Laura Curtis, Tony Capaccio and Indira A.R. Lakshmanan of Bloomberg News and by Bradley Klapper and George Jahn of The Associated Press.
A Section on 03/18/2015