Sen. Ted Cruz’s vow to rip up the Iranian nuclear accord if he’s elected president drew vocal disagreement from some of his Republican presidential rivals Wednesday night.
“This deal will only accelerate Iran’s acquiring nuclear weapons,” Mr. Cruz said. “If I’m elected president, on the very first day in office, I will rip to shreds this catastrophic Iranian nuclear deal.”
But Ohio Gov. John Kasich said the deal, while bad, should be allowed to be implemented. If Iran cheats, he said, sanctions can be slapped back on Tehran.
“We are stronger when we work with Western civilization, our friends in Europe,” Mr. Kasich said. “Just doing it on our own, I don’t think it’s the right call.”
Sen. Rand Paul, Kentucky Republican, said it would be “absurd” to cut up the agreement immediately after a Republican takes office.
“We want to know if they’ve complied,” Mr. Paul said.
Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, however, agreed with Mr. Cruz that the deal should be rescinded immediately.
“This threatens Israel immediately,” he said. “They threaten the very essence of western civilization. To give them this agreement that the president [Obama] treats like the Magna Carta but the Iranians treat it like it’s toilet paper. 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.”
• Dave Boyer can be reached at dboyer@washingtontimes.com.
Please read our comment policy before commenting.