GOP’s Iran letter undermined US legal standing: Larijani

Iran’s Parliament (Majlis) Speaker Ali Larijani says the letter by the US Republican senators shows the influence of the Zionist lobby on the country’s political scene, saying the move undermined the US’s legal standing in the global community.

The senators’ move in writing the letter explains the reason behind the international community’s growing “distrust” in the US administration, Larijani said on Sunday.

The top parliamentarian further slammed as “hollow” and “void” a speech by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at a joint session of the US Congress earlier this month, saying the American senators decided to send such a letter to Iran in another “thoughtless” move after the world ridiculed Netanyahu’s anti-Iran rant.

The letter dealt a heavy blow to the legal standing of the US on the international stage, Larijani stressed.

In an unexpected move on Monday, 47 senators from the Republican party, commonly known as the GOP, issued a desperate warning to the Iranian officials on the validity of a potential nuclear deal, describing such an agreement as “nothing more than an executive agreement” which could be canceled by the next US president “by a stroke of a pen.”

The letter was sent days after Netanyahu said the White House was negotiating a “very bad nuclear deal” with the Islamic Republic in his address to US Congressmen in early March.

Larijani further called on the Iranian negotiators to block any “reactionary measures” such as the loopholes suggested in the controversial letter in a possible agreement with the P5+1 group of countries over Tehran’s nuclear work.

Earlier in the week, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif (shown above) condemned the letter as a publicity stunt without any legal value.

“It is very interesting that while negotiations are still in progress and while no agreement has been reached, some political pressure groups are so afraid of even the prospect of an agreement that they resort to unconventional methods, unprecedented in diplomatic history,” he said.

Iran-Sextet nuclear talks

Iran and the P5+1 countries – China, Russia, Britain, France, the US and Germany – are seeking to seal a high-profile political deal by the end of March and to confirm the full technical details of the accord by July 1.

The scale of Iran’s uranium enrichment and the timetable for the removal of anti-Iran sanctions are seen as the major stumbling blocks in the talks.

Iran has suspended some of its enrichment program in return for certain sanctions relief under an interim deal with the P5+1 in November 2013.