Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif warned again on Wednesday that U.S. lawmakers should refrain from any attempt to nullify a nuclear deal between Tehran and six world powers, or else risk "chaos in your bilateral relations."
"I believe the United States will risk isolating itself in the world if there is an agreement and it decides to break it," Zarif said during an event at New York University, The Washington Post reported.
"Whether you have a Democratic or Republican president, the United States is bound by international law, whether some senators like it or not," he added. "And international law requires the United States live up to the terms of an agreement it enters into."
In March, 47 Republican senators, including three presidential candidates, sent an open letter to Iran warning that if President Obama doesn't first submit a deal to Congress for approval, lawmakers could "revoke such an executive agreement with the stroke of a pen and future Congresses could modify the terms of the agreement at any time."
A preliminary agreement was reached earlier this month, and a final deadline for an accord has been set for June 30. Iran is expected to scale back much of its nuclear program in exchange for sanction relief.
Iran responded to the Senators by reminding lawmakers that Iran is not conducting negotiations with Congress, but rather with the P5+1 nations - the U.S., the United Kingdom, France, Russia, China and Germany.
Zarif noted Wednesday that most international agreements are executive orders that don't require Congress' approval. "You know that ... 90 percent of U.S. overseas agreements are executive agreements, including the agreement you have in Afghanistan," he said.
"From 1933 onwards, you have executive agreements that have stood the test of decades, various administrations, even a change in global environments," Zarif said. He added, "All sorts of stuff has happened in the world, and you had executive agreements which haven't changed and which have continued to operate ... None of them have been ratified by ... Congress, and they stand."
Zarif continued, "If the U.S. Senate wants to send a message to the rest of the world that all of these agreements that the United States has signed are invalid, then you will have chaos in your bilateral relations, although you are welcome to do it," according to the Post.
"But I don't think that would be something that even the most radical elements in Congress want," he said.
