Sen. Marco Rubio criticized Secretary of State John Kerry during Thursday’s Senate Foreign Relations hearing on the Iran nuclear deal, calling it “irreparably flawed” while hitting the Obama administration for having “repeatedly capitulated” on various issues.
During his remarks, Rubio warned Kerry that the deal with the Iranians “makes the world a more dangerous place,” while adding that the only people the deal helps are the Iranian officials who harbor anti-American and anti-Israeli sentiments.
“The administration has publicly stated that you expect this deal is going to be rejected by majorities in both houses of Congress. You said that while winning approval of Congress would be nice your goal is to basically convince enough Democrats to support the deal so that you can avoid an override a detail, so as far as the administration is concerned, this is a done deal.”
“But I do think it’s important for the world, and especially for Iran to understand that as far as the American sanctions are concerned, this is a deal whose survival is not guaranteed beyond the term of the current president,” Rubio said. “And by the way, I personally hope that the next president is somebody that will remove the national security waiver and reimpose the Congressional sanctions that were passed by Congress, because this deal is fundamentally and irreparably flawed. I believe it weakens our national security and it makes the world a more dangerous place.”
“Throughout this process, by the way, this administration, in my opinion, has repeatedly capitulated on some important items, and the examples are endless,” Rubio said, pointing to anywhere/anytime inspections and snapback sanctions.
“No matter what happens, Iran will keep the more than billions of dollars it is going to receive up front, basically, as a signing bonus. Iran will be allowed to continue to develop long-range ballistic weapons, ICBM’s that know only one purpose, and that is for nuclear warfare,” Rubio said. “All of these promises that they are making about never pursuing a weapon. They are all revealed as lies when they are developing a long-range rocket capable of reaching this very room one day not so far off in the future. There’s only one reason to develop those rockets, thats to put a nuclear warhead on them.”
Rubio then turned his attention to the American hostages in Iran and the nation’s human rights record, which the Florida senator calls “atrocious.”
“On terrorism, this deal provides billions, possibly hundreds of billions to a regime that…directly threatens the interests of the United States and our allies, and lastly, nothing in the deal holds Iran to account on human rights,” Rubio said. “Quite the opposite. The Iranian regime is being rewarded for its atrocious human rights record.”
“I know you said you brought up the American hostages in every negotiation, and I think we all thank you for that, but for the families of Americans who are missing and detained in Iran…this deal has brought no new information regarding their loved ones’ whereabouts.
“In fact, the only people this deal does anything for, directly, are the Iranian officials who want to continue to jail and execute their people. Who hate Israel and seek to wipe the Jewish state and it’s people from the face of the planet,” Rubio said. “Secretary Kerry, I do not fault you for trying to engage in diplomacy and striking a deal with Iran, I don’t. I do fault the president for striking a terrible deal with Iran.”