Republican presidential candidates vowing to “rip to shreds” or “tear up” the Iran nuclear on day one is not a task the U.S. is able to carry out without the international community, former House Majority Leader Eric Cantor says.
In a recent interview with Cherwell, an Oxford University student newspaper, Cantor said if a Republican President is to revise the nuclear agreement reached with Iran, it must be done in conjunction with the international community and not by unilateral executive action.
“I think the only hope that we can get anything good at this point is a new President with a new compliance and verification system to go in and to really build consensus among our allies that something needs to be done,” the former Jewish Republican congressman said.
Building that consensus will require shifting away from the Europen position, where Obama is, and working together with the countries “that are most proximate to the threat,” according to Cantor. “You ask our Sunni allies, and Arab allies, you ask Israel, ask Egypt, ask Saudi Arabia, ask the United Arab Emirates – ask them what they think about this agreement and trusting the Iranians. They are solidly where the majority of the US Congress is.”
It should be noted that Cantor’s statements reflect the views of presidential candidate Jeb Bush, whom Cantor endorsed two months ago. Other candidates, like Ted Cruz, Marco Rubio, Carly Fiorina, Booby Jindal and others, have already pledged to disavow the deal on day one of their presidency.
Stating he would’ve never signed such a deal, Cantor maintained that the Iranians could not be trusted in keeping the terms of the deal. “Let’s just assume the efficacy of the monitoring system and the dispute resolution system – which I don’t, but let’s just put that aside. The very troubling aspect of this are all the resources and money that we’re pouring into Iran and that money will enure to the benefit a very small portion of the population, the Iranian Revolutionary Guard. And they’re the bad guys,” he asserted. “There are tens of billions of dollars that will flow into the country because sanctions have now been lifted. These measures will just allow Iran to add to its ability to destabilize the region. Iran is a terrorist regime and we’ve handed it these capacities – it’s very, very upsetting.”
