No Need for More Congress Role in Iran Nuclear Talks: Ex-US Negotiator
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – A former American negotiator with Iran said the US Congress should not get further involved in the talks over a lasting accord on Tehran's nuclear energy program.
In an e-mail interview with Tasnim, Richard Nephew, a former US negotiator with Iran who is now at Columbia University, commented on the influence the US Congress exerts on a possible nuclear deal between Tehran and the Group 5+1 (Russia, China, the US, Britain, France and Germany).
Asked about the Congress' apparent efforts to get an upper hand in the nuclear negotiations, Nephew said, "I think that the US Congress believed that its responsibilities first to the US Constitution and, second, to the American people made it important for them to have a legally-defined role in the process. I think that this is based on both an honest internal US political concern and an honest concern about the strength of the deal to be negotiated, as well as distrust of Iran. I think that many Iranian legislators share these concerns from Iran's perspective."
He also commented on the outcomes of the Congressional interference in the talks, noting, "I am on record as saying that I thought that Congress did not need to be further involved than it is at the moment and I still believe that. But, ultimately, I think that a deal will be reached or not on the overall merits of the negotiation, not the domestic political issues in either capital. Whether the deal can be sustained after it is reached, however, is another matter. Both the US and the Iranian negotiators will have to be able to explain the deal reached to their home audiences. This will require much work."
On April 14, a legislation was passed unanimously by the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee, giving the Congress power to review a possible nuclear deal with Iran.
Iran and the six world powers are in talks to hammer out a lasting accord that would end more than a decade of impasse over Tehran's peaceful nuclear energy program.
On April 2, the two sides reached a framework nuclear agreement after more than a week of intensive negotiations in Lausanne, Switzerland, with both sides committed to push for a final deal until the end of June.