US President Barack Obama has
criticised a letter from Republican senators to Iran, accusing them of
"interfering" in ongoing nuclear talks.
He said the 47 senators made an "unusual coalition" with Iran's hard-line religious leaders.
The letter reminds Iran that any deal is just an executive agreement unless it gets congressional approval.
Talks on Iran's nuclear programme are at a critical stage, with an outline agreement due on 31 March.
Last
week Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told Congress the deal
currently being negotiated could "pave Iran's path to the bomb".
Separately,
officials confirmed that US Secretary of State John Kerry would meet
his Iranian counterpart, Mohammad Javad Zarif, on Sunday in Switzerland,
as part of the process.
The P5+1 group of major powers - the
US, UK, France, Russia and China plus Germany - is seeking to persuade
Iran to curb its nuclear programme in exchange for an easing of UN
sanctions.
They are trying to address concerns that Iran is seeking nuclear weapons technology, something Tehran denies.
Republicans and some Democrats have long been pushing for Congress to get a vote on any deal.
But
the White house insists such an agreement does not require the approval
of legislators, the BBC's Gary O'Donoghue reports from Washington.
"I think it's somewhat ironic to see some members of Congress wanting
to make common cause with the hardliners in Iran," Mr Obama said in
response to the letter. "It's an unusual coalition."
He added that he would concentrate his efforts on trying to strike a deal.
Earlier,
White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest said the letter interfered
with diplomatic negotiations. He called it a "rush to war, or at least
the rush to the military option".
Mr Zarif dismissed the letter as
a propaganda ploy, adding that if a future administration revoked a
deal it would amount to a blatant violation of international law.
In their letter to Iran, published on the website of Senator Tom Cotton, the senators suggest Iran's leaders "may not fully understand our constitutional system".
They note that any agreement without their support would exist solely
between President Obama and Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei.
"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," the senators wrote in the letter.
The signatories
add that "most of us will remain in office well beyond [January 2017]"
when Mr Obama's second term comes to an end.
Nuclear Iran: What world powers want - and what they fear
World powers imposed sanctions on Iran
because they felt it was not being honest about its nuclear programme
and was seeking the ability to build a nuclear bomb.
Tehran denied this. Talks between Iran
and six world powers known as the P5+1 have tried to allay the
suspicions in exchange for easing the sanctions
Specifically, the world powers want to
curtail Iran's ability to enrich uranium, which can be used to make
reactor fuel but also nuclear weapons
Disagreement centres on how to limit Iran's development and use of centrifuges that enrich uranium
Faster enrichment would cut the time
Iran would need to produce enough weapons-grade uranium for a weapon,
were it to choose to do so. The US wants this "break-out window" to be
at least a year long
It is not known if Iran has a warhead or suitable delivery system
Democrats including Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid denounced the letter.
"Let's
be clear," Mr Reid said on the floor of the Senate on Monday.
"Republicans are undermining our commander in chief while empowering the
ayatollahs."
The letter comes shortly after Congress invited
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to speak on the issue of the
Iran talks.
That move earned White House disapproval as Congress acted unilaterally.
Republicans
now control both chambers of Congress after winning elections last
November, giving them considerable leverage over Mr Obama.
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