Sen. Cruz: We Still Have an Opportunity to Tell the Truth About Today's 'Mistake of Historic Proportion'
Congress Must Stop a Deal that Puts Iran on Path Toward Nuclear Bomb
Washington, D.C. -- U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, released the following statement in response to the nuclear deal negotiated with Iran:
"Today, the international community led by the United States has agreed to not only legitimize and perpetuate the Iranian nuclear program, but also to further arm and enrich the brutal theocratic regime that has oppressed the Iranian people for more than thirty years - a regime that is wrongfully holding United States citizens captive, that is sponsoring radical Islamic terrorism across the globe, and that regularly promotes the destruction of both Israel and America throughout its streets.
"Despite these facts, it seems President Obama would concede almost anything to get any deal - even a terrible deal - from the Islamic Republic of Iran's Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei. Under the terms of this deal, Iran will retain all of its centrifuges, one-third of which will continue to spin. Rather than the most intrusive inspections regime in history that we were promised, IAEA inspectors must petition the mullahs to visit sensitive sites, and wait for two weeks for their permission. In a final, shocking concession, the United States will support lifting of the United Nations arms embargos that restrict the Iranian ballistic missile program and arms trafficking. And in return, billions of dollars of economic relief will flow to Tehran.
"Yet, in his remarks this morning, the President glossed over the truth about Iran's world-leading state-sponsorship of terrorism that is violently destabilizing the region, and would grow more deadly should the Iranians get a nuclear bomb. He failed to mention American citizens, Saeed Abedini, Amir Hekmati, and Jason Rezaian, who continue to languish in Iranian prisons or Robert Levinson, who is still unaccounted for. For them, today is no ‘opportunity to move in a new direction' as the President claimed. We owe it to our fellow Americans elevate, not ignore, their plight, to demand their swift and unconditional release by the implacably hostile regime that holds them.
"Even by the low standards of the Joint Plan of Action, this is a staggeringly bad deal. It is a fundamental betrayal of the security of the United States and of our closest allies, first and foremost Israel.
"But thankfully, it is not a done deal. We still have an opportunity to tell the truth about what Prime Minister Netanyahu called today a ‘bad mistake of historic proportion.'
"Congress will have 60 days to review it, and the American people will have 60 days to tell their elected representatives just what they think of it. I urge all my fellow citizens to speak out and let their elected leaders know that even if President Obama won't see it, we know the leaders of the Islamic Republic who lead crowds in chants of ‘Death to America' and ‘Death to Israel' are not our partners in peace, and must not be put on the path to a nuclear bomb."
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