News / Politics

Tom Cotton urges Obama to 'be strong' during Iran talks

Tuesday, 30 June 2015 12:40 PM [ Last Update: Tuesday, 30 June 2015 12:49 PM ]

US Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AK) looks at his papers during a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing on Capitol Hill on March 18, 2015 in Washington, DC. (AFP photo)

US Senator Tom Cotton, known for his close links with American neoconservatives, has called on President Barack Obama to “be strong” and extend the Iran nuclear talks beyond a June 30 deadline until demands are met.

In an article published on Monday, Cotton wrote that what the Iranian leaders “respect is strength.”

“And this is a moment — perhaps more than any other time of his presidency — for President Obama to be strong," said Cotton, a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee.

"He should continue talks past tomorrow's artificial deadline for however long it takes to eliminate Iran's nuclear weapons capability," added Cotton, the purported author of a controversial GOP letter to Iran's leaders over nuclear negotiations.

(L-3rd L) US Secretary of Energy Ernest Moniz, US Secretary of State John Kerry and US Under Secretary for Political Affairs Wendy Sherman meet with Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif (2nd R) and his delegation at a hotel in Vienna on June 28, 2015. (AFP photo)

"That would be a strategic gain for which lifting sanctions would be justified. Failing that, the president should cite Iranian intransigence, break off talks, reinstate the full spectrum of economic sanctions and fortify the credible threat of military force," he continued.

Cotton reportedly received one million dollars from the Emergency Committee for Israel, an American neoconservative group associated with the Israel lobby, just before the last US election.

He opposes talks with Iran and has been campaigning for airstrikes against the Islamic Republic.

A framework agreement was reached between Iran and the P5+1 group in Switzerland on April 2. (AFP Photo)

In an interview in April, the freshman Republican senator from Arkansas said he wants the United States to bomb Iran’s nuclear infrastructure, a war he believes would only take a few days to win outright.

In a bizarre move in March, a group of 47 Republican senators sent an open letter to Iran’s leaders, warning that whatever agreement reached with Obama would be a “mere executive agreement” and that Congress could ultimately walk away from any deal with Tehran upon review.

The Obama administration has denounced the GOP letter as an “unprecedented” and “calculated” attempt to interfere with nuclear talks underway between Tehran and the P5+1 countries - the US, Britain, France, China, Russia, and Germany, which have entered a sensitive final stage ahead of the Tuesday deadline for a comprehensive agreement.

Tom Cotton claimed that he had drafted the letter. However, independent analysts say the letter was actually written by William Kristol, a US neoconservative political analyst and the founder of the Emergency Committee for Israel.