Rubio: Cancelling Iran Deal Still Possible

Republican presidential candidate Marco Rubio on Monday urged his rivals for the Republican presidential nomination to pledge to cancel the Iran nuclear deal on Day One before seeking international consensus.

During an hourlong town hall meeting in Rochester, New Hampshire, Rubio questioned the notion that the “train has left the station” on the international accord, since “we are the train.”

“If you tell the nature of global cooperation, you can have access to the American economy, or you can have access the Iranian economy that represents less than 1/10 of one percent of global capital floats. I promise you I know which economy you’re going to choose to have access to, and it’s not going to be theirs,” he stated.

Rubio also urged his colleagues to take the same stance on the Iran deal. “If you’re thinking about some major investment in Iran you may want to wait until November of 2016 until you make that decision,” he stressed. “If I’m elected president of the U.S., we are going to cancel the deal on our first day in office. And I’m going to turn to Iran and the world and say this: ‘You don’t need nuclear energy. You’re an oil-rich country. If you want nuclear energy, you can have it the same way South Korea and other countries do it, and that is, you can import the enriched uranium. You don’t have to enrich it yourself. If you try to build a weapon, we will destroy your weapons system. And as long as you do not agree to these terms, we will cripple your economy with sanctions.'”

As far as the $150 billion Iran is expected to get as a result of the deal the Florida Senator said, “I can tell you what they are not going to spend the money on: they are not going to spend it on global aid for the poor. They are not going to spend it on disability programs and are not going to spend it on building more schools and bridges and roads. They are going to spend it – on what the ayatollah has always spent their money on – to sponsor terrorism designed to kill Jews and Americans, and anyone who doesn’t agree with them. They are going to use it to build up their own conventional power so they can become the dominant military force in the Middle East, and are going to use it to build a long-range missile, which they continue to test.”

Echoing Republican presidential frontrunner Donald Trump, Rubio insisted that the Iranians will acquire nuclear weapons under the current terms of the deal. “Guys, they are going to get a nuclear weapon. They’re either going to buy it from North Korea, which will easily sell it to them, or they are going to build one of their own,” he maintained. “It’s not that hard anymore, and the $150 billion are going to make it even faster.”

“I refuse – and as president, I will not allow us – to live in a world where a radical Shiite cleric – the Ayatollah of Iran, who has an apocalyptic vision of the future, possesses not just nuclear warheads but a long-range missile that can hit us in the U.S.,” he declared. “It is not going to happen when I am president… And it begins by cancelling that deal on my first day in office.”

Earlier Monday, Rubio referred to Clinton’s comments during the 3rd Democratic presidential debate on Saturday, where she stated, “We now finally are where we need to be” in the war against ISIS.

In an appearance on “Fox n’ Friends” Monday morning, Rubio said it seems President Obama and Clinton “live in two different universes” and are “completely out of touch with reality.”

The Republican presidential hopeful noted Clinton’s tenure as Secretary of State for the first four out of seven “disastrous foreign policy years” as being responsible for the rise of ISIS: “The truth is that the threat of ISIS began to emerge in Syria while she was still the secretary of state and of course fully blossomed right after she left. They’re all responsible for that’s happened here.”

On Monday, Hillary’s campaign released a new TV ad, “Secured,” which highlights her commitment to “make sure our country is safe and strong.”