Dubai: Iran’s Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif on Monday dismissed as “propaganda” a letter written by US Senate Republicans to the Iranian leadership casting doubts on the viability of a nuclear agreement.
Zarif said its writers don’t understand international law or their own constitution on presidential powers in conducting foreign policy, according to a report by the Islamic Students News Agency.
“It is astonishing that some Congress members find it appropriate to write to leaders of another country against their own president and administration... some political pressure groups are so afraid even of the prospect of an agreement that they resort to unconventional methods, unprecedented in diplomatic history,” Zarif said, according to the report.
He added: “I should bring one important point to the attention of the authors and that is, the world is not the US, and the conduct of inter-state relations is governed by international law, and not by US domestic law. The authors may not fully understand that in international law, governments represent the entirety of their respective states, are responsible for the conduct of foreign affairs, are required to fulfil the obligations they undertake with other states and may not invoke their internal law as justification for failure to perform their international obligations.
“Change of administration does not in any way relieve the next administration from international obligations undertaken by its predecessor in a possible agreement about Iran`s peaceful nuclear programme... I wish to enlighten the authors that if the next administration revokes any agreement with the stroke of a pen, as they boast, it will have simply committed a blatant violation of international law.”
