Bush Would Seek to Water Down Iran Sanctions Relief

Republican presidential candidate Jeb Bush on Tuesday once again refused to pledge to cancel the Iran nuclear deal on day one. But for the first time, he offered specifics as what he would do as president to change the U.S. approach to the Iranian nuclear threat.

In an interview with CNN, aired Tuesday night,  Bush said he would seek to water down the sanctions relief, which is an important component of the deal, by convincing the P5+1 partners not to rush closing any major deals with Iran.

“I would confront Iran’s ambitions in the region” by not allowing Iran to gain influence in the Middle East, he said. “I would do everything in my power to assure that our Europen allies wouldn’t make major investments in Iran, including the possibility of reinstating U.S. sanctions which will have an impact of Europen countries that are considering investing in Iran.”

The Republican presidential hopeful expressed hope that Europen countries will pick their alliance with the United States over “partnering with the Iranian revolutionary guard to suppress the people of Iran.”

Asked if there were any circumstances in which he would’ve agreed to the Iran deal, Bush said, “I would have agreed to the deal that President Obama said was the purpose of the basis of the deal – which was to assure that Iran would never, ever have the capability of building a nuclear bomb. But he abandoned that. That’s the tragedy of this.”

As to his approach towards the Iranian regime as a global state sponsor of terrorism, the former Florida Governor stated: “I believe in miracles. I am a person of faith. I will pray for a miracle for the transformation of the  mullahs to let their country be free.”