President Donald Trump on Wednesday claimed that Senator Chris Murphy violated a 2-century-old US law prohibiting freelance diplomacy with hostile nations over a meeting with Iran's foreign minister and of preventing Tehran from negotiating with Washington over a new nuclear agreement
WASHINGTON (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 19th February, 2020) President Donald Trump on Wednesday claimed that Senator Chris Murphy violated a 2-century-old US law prohibiting freelance diplomacy with hostile nations over a meeting with Iran's foreign minister and of preventing Tehran from negotiating with Washington over a new nuclear agreement.
"Kerry & Murphy illegally violated the Logan Act. This is why Iran is not making a deal. Must be dealt with strongly!" Trump said in a Twitter post.
Trump has previously called for former Secretary of State John Kerry, who has admitted meeting with Iran's foreign minister three or four times since the Obama administration ended, to be prosecuted.
But the addition of Murphy follows the senator's recent meeting with Iran Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif on the sidelines of the annual security conference in Munich earlier this month.
Murphy later defended the meeting, saying "it's dangerous to not talk to your enemies. Discussions and negotiations are a way to ease tensions and reduce the chances for crisis."
Kerry negotiated the 2015 nuclear agreement with Iran, which Trump scrapped, and Murphy is critical of the president's decision.�
The 1799 Logan Act prohibits Americans from negotiating with a nation that is hostile to America without permission of the US.
The Logan Act has been used in only one indictment in the early 19th century, but the case was never prosecuted. Legal experts say the law is overly vague, in part because it does not specify who or which agency in the US government can authorize back-channel negotiations.
