It's working: Iranians keep bringing up Cotton letter in nuclear talks

To listen to the punditocracy, you'd think that 47 Republican senators signed an open letter to Iran's government for the purpose of gaining adoring coverage in the press, and thus the letter "backfired" because they got beaten up instead. In fact, the purpose of the letter was to prevent Iran from thinking they could get away with building the bomb once serial appeasers Barack Obama and John Kerry have blessedly left the scene.

And it appears that the effort, led by freshman Senator Tom Cotton of Arkansas, is working:

Iranian officials reportedly have confronted their U.S. counterparts twice over an open letter from Republican senators to Tehran that warned any agreement on Iran's nuclear program would be unlikely to last beyond President Barack Obama's term of office. The Associated Press, citing a senior U.S. official, reported that the letter, which was signed by 47 of 54 GOP members, first came up in negotiations on Sunday and was raised again Monday in discussions led by Secretary of State John Kerry and Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif. Zarif was quoted by Iranian state media after the meeting as saying the topics included the potential speed of a softening of U.S. economic sanctions and the new issue of the letter from the senators. "It is necessary that the stance of the U.S. administration be defined about this move," he was quoted as saying.

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Let's not forget what this is all about. The Iranians are desperate for economic sanctions to be lifted, but they have no intention of giving up their nuclear ambitions in order to make it happen. What they needed, therefore, was to find a pliable U.S. administration willing to lift the sanctions in exchange for basically nothing of substance. Enter Barack Obama, who is also desperate for something - a foreign policy achievement. And he thinks that waving a piece of paper and claiming he's solved the issue of Iran and the bomb can serve as that achievement. Senate Republicans know that this is a terrible idea and that we're better off leaving the sanctions in place while maintaining the plausible threat of force against Iran if they continue to work toward the development of nuclear weapons. So they threw a wrench into the negotiations in the hope of scuttling the deal. As Fox's report continues, we see that the letter appears to have had its intended effect:

In Lausanne, the U.S. official wouldn't say how much time the sides spent talking about the letter drafted seven days ago by freshman Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark. The Iranians have called the letter a propaganda ploy, and Zarif joked last week that some U.S. legislators didn't understand their own Constitution. The Obama administration has called the letter "ill timed" and "ill advised," coming weeks before the deadline for a preliminary agreement with Iran on its nuclear program. Cotton isn't backing down. In his maiden speech in the Senate, Cotton reiterated his view that the deal being discussed would pave Iran's path to a nuclear bomb. "Iran is an outlaw regime. ... Unsurprising, Iran is only growing bolder and more aggressive as America retreats from the Middle East," Cotton said, adding that Iranian leaders continue to call for Israel's elimination and that Iran is meddling in other nations, including Syria and Iraq.

By the way, let's deal with this liberal nonsense that claims the Republican senators got the Constitution wrong in the letter. They did no such thing. Liberals are claiming that the Senate doesn't really ratify treaties, but provides advice and consent for the president who then goes and executes the treaty. The Iranians have also picked up on this narrative, which means we now see the lovely alliance of Iran's mad mullahs and the American left pushing the same line of propaganda. The truth is that the GOP senators got the Constitution exactly right on substance. The president has to seek the advice and consent of the Senate, and receive it in the form of a two-thirds vote. He has not done that and has no intention of doing that. As such, any agreement will be null and void as soon as we have a president with no inclination to abide by it. Liberals and the media (but I repeat myself) are having a conniption fit because the Republicans interrupted this charade by publicly stating the truth about the true nature of these negotiations. I don't know if it's enough to prevent a deal, but at least it's enough to make the Iranians understand that they're only going to have an enabling appeaser in the White House until the U.S. electorate wises up and makes a better choice at the ballot box. And hopefully it's enought to make a significant portion of that same electorate understand how worthless that piece of paper Obama wants to wave will really be.