Live from the Roasterie: Given Republican Senator Tom Cotton and colleagues' letter, wholly credible.
Republicans: Worse than you can imagine, even knowing that they are worse than you can imagine:
: Oh My: "We can by no means take this as a disinterested claim...
...And no specific names are mentioned. But a high-ranking Iranian government official, who is an appointee of reformist President Hassan Rouhani, says that Republicans asked the Iranians to delay last months prisoner exchange deal until after the Presidential election....
Here is the actual quote (translation from Farsi, of course, from Tasnim)...
In the course of the talks for exchanging prisoners, the Republican rivals of the current US administration who claim to be humanitarians and advocates of human rights sent a message telling us not to release these people (American prisoners) and continue this process (of talks) until the eve of US presidential elections....
Now, remember, Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR) did pen an open letter (signed by all his Senate colleagues) cautioning the Iranian leadership not to conclude a nuclear deal with President Obama. But that was really more a PR stunt in the context of DC politics than any sort of effort to open a backchannel communication. Still, the backstory makes it hard to dismiss this allegation out of hand...
