WASHINGTON — Sen. Ted Cruz and Rep. Michael McCaul of Texas led a chorus of Republicans denouncing the Iran nuclear deal Wednesday after news of a payment to Iran earlier this year.
The Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday that the Obama administration organized a covert airlift of $400 million in cash to Iran in January, coinciding with the release of four Americans detained in Tehran.
Opponents of last year’s Iran nuclear deal quickly latched on to the news as evidence that the agreement is, in Cruz’s words, “fundamentally illegitimate.”
“It is nothing but a series of bribes and secret agreements that will do nothing to prevent Iran from reaching nuclear capability, yet will provide funding for their sponsorship of terrorism and encourage them to detain more of our citizens,” Cruz said of the deal in a written statement. “This ‘deal’ should be ripped to shreds immediately before more damage is done.”
McCaul, an Austin Republican who chairs the House Homeland Security Committee, had no qualms about suggesting that the timing of the administration’s payment was no coincidence.
“This ‘coincidental’ payment represents more than just the lengths the Obama administration will go to appease the ayatollahs in Iran to preserve a disastrous nuclear deal,” McCaul said in a written statement. “This decision has further jeopardized the safety and security of allies in the region and Americans abroad, and the Obama administration’s lack of transparency and refusal to respond to congressional inquiries surrounding this payment should lead the American people to wonder what’s next?”
McCaul’s and Cruz’s forceful condemnations of the deal fit into a party-wide effort to highlight the news as another example of the administration’s secrecy in executing the terms of the deal. The agreement — reached last summer among Iran, the five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council and the European Union — has been under fire from Republicans since the moment it was signed.
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The most recent piece of evidence that the so-called nuclear deal with the mullahs is fundamentally illegitimate: https://t.co/tRZzIHQmDI
— Ted Cruz (@tedcruz) August 4, 2016
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