“Earlier this summer..” means about three or more months ago. Isn’t it just a great coincidence that we only hear about this letter now, on a Conservative site. What a stunner, NOT.
That's because you are not paying attention. And, since foreign policy is the prerogative of the senate, you have to watch the senate.
It began last fall and by Dec 2013 the legislation Nuclear Free Iran Act was introduced into the Senate. This was prompted because the NeoCon Republicans(led by Senator Kirk) and the Liberal Interventionists Democrats(led by Senator Menendez) were not pleased with pace of the P5 plus one negotiations. There were 58 cosigners on the bill and it was thought that it would get 61 votes for cloture. AIPAC supported the bill but J Street opposed.
The bill was a bucket list of additional sanctions that would be imposed on Iran if the negotiations failed.
The opposition was that if the legislation passed the senate, it would undermine the negotiations. Nobody opposed the additional sanctions, if the negotiations failed. They didn't want the sanctions listed.
The opposition was republican realists(led by Sen Corker) and democrat realists(led by Sen Feinstein) plus the rightwing isolationists(led by Sen Paul) and the antiwar dems.
Because of the conflict, Reid wouldn't let the bill onto the floor of the Senate until the language was softened. So they started working on an amendment, without any success.
Then, AIPAC dropped their support and it all ground to a halt.
Meanwhile, a second sanctions issue arose, that the sanctions relief that Obama and P5 plus one had given Iran when the negotiations began had been to liberal and/or Iran was cheating. So, in August, Obama imposed additional sanctions on Iran.
This issue really goes back to campaign 2008. You need to also realize that it was the world economic conditions after the 2008 collapse that allowed Obama to isolate Iran and keep their oil off the world market, that drove Iran to the negotiation table. There are growing conflicts within P5 plus one and Russia is undermining.
Hmmmm, did you ever think that all this business about Iraq, Syria, and ISIS could be a cover story to pre-position assets for a war with Iran?