US presidential candidate Sen. Cruz vows to 'rip to shreds' Iran accord
Republican presidential candidate Senator Ted Cruz has vowed to immediately “rip to shreds” the internationally-negotiated nuclear agreement with Iran.
“If I am elected president, on the very first day in office I will rip to shreds this catastrophic Iranian nuclear deal,” the Texas Republican said Wednesday night during the second GOP presidential debate, held at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library.
The harsh rhetoric drew vocal disagreement from some of his rivals who said they would be more cautious, while others said they agreed.
“We are stronger when we work with Western civilization, our friends in Europe. Just doing it on our own, I don’t think it’s the right call,” Ohio Governor John Kasich said of the nuclear accord negotiated between Iran and the P5+1 group—the US, Britain, France, Russia, China, and Germany.
Kasich said if Tehran violated the agreement, he would use the “snapback” mechanism to re-impose sanctions on the Islamic Republic.
Senator Rand Paul said it would be “absurd” to void the agreement immediately after a Republican takes office. “We want to know if they’ve complied.”
Jeb Bush, a former governor of Florida, said he would improve the US strategy to “confront” Iran and reaffirm the US commitment to Israel’s security. “It’s not a strategy to tear up an agreement.”
“The first thing that we need to do is to establish our commitment to Israel which has been altered by this administration,” Bush said. “And, make sure that they have the most sophisticated weapons to send a signal to Iran that we have Israel’s back. If we do that, it’s going to create a healthier deterrent effect than anything else I can think of.”
Former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee agreed with Sen. Cruz, saying he would “destroy” the nuclear accord if elected president.
“This threatens Israel immediately,” he said. “We must simply make it very clear that the next president, one of us on this stage, will absolutely not honor that agreement and will destroy it.”
Senator Marco Rubio of Florida, who voted to block the Iran deal in the Senate, refused to say that he would immediately rescind the agreement, but said he was sure Iran would not comply with it.
After a long partisan fight in Washington, the Republican-led Congress failed to pass a resolution of disapproval against the nuclear pact earlier this month as Senate Democrats filibustered the measure.
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