Congratulations to Arnold York for the most cogent analysis, in his March 5 editorial, that I have seen about Bibi Netanyahu’s effort to undermine American foreign policy regarding the negotiations of the P5+1 with Iran over its nuclear program. A petition by Moveon.org is now circulating calling for the indictment of Speaker Boehner for violating the Logan Act, which makes it a felony for American citizens to negotiate separately with foreign governments to undermine American foreign policy. That is exactly what Boehner has done by inviting Bibi to speak before Congress without first clearing it with the Obama Administration, and he should be indicted.
The Constitution gives the House of Representatives no role in American foreign policy, except to pass a budget and make appropriations. After the President negotiates a treaty, the Senate gives its Advice and Consent and is finalized without any involvement by the House. This is the way it should be, as the Senate was set up by the Constitution to be a more deliberative body, not swayed by the emotions of the more provincial House Representatives, who often have no interests other than representing their (often rural) home districts.
It is possible that the president, if the P5+1 reaches an agreement with Iran, may not even take it to the Senate, as it is being negotiated through the Security Council of the United Nations. Obama could call it a “sole executive agreement” that requires no formal approval by Congress. President George W. Bush most recently used this procedure in 2001 when he unilaterally exited the Anti-Ballistic Treaty with Russia. There are existing sanctions agreements that have been passed by both houses of Congress and signed into law by the President (including Obama), but the waiver provisions in these agreements would let President Obama suspend enforcement of the sanctions for up to six months at a time.
But Obama does not even need to worry about the sanctions. The agreement with Iran would call for putting in place a series of steps by Iran to demonstrate their compliance with the agreement, with a little bit of the sanctions lifted with each step, until Iran clearly demonstrates that it will live up to the agreement. Only at that time would the U.S. start to make changes to the statutory sanctions regime passed by Congress. So once the agreement is finalized, Obama could let other countries lift their sanctions for the first few years of the agreement, and then, long after Obama has left office, the next president would have to deal with Iran’s nuclear program.
Ted Vaill