Democratic presidential front-runner Hillary Clinton on Wednesday backed President Obama’s nuclear deal with Iran as long as it is enforced with “vigor and vigilance,” and said if Iran were to break the agreement she would not hesitate to take military action in the Middle East.
“I support this deal,” Clinton said at a speech at the Brookings Institution. “I support it as part of a larger strategy toward Iran.”
“It’s not enough to just say, ‘yes’ to this deal, of course it isn’t,” Clinton said, adding that agreeing to the deal will then require additional steps from the U.S. and other countries. “Yes, and we will enforce it with vigor and vigilance. Yes, and we will embed it in a broader strategy to confront Iran’s bad behavior in the region.”
The former secretary of state admitted that while this is “not a perfect deal” it is a very strong deal. Without a deal, the United States would have no supervision over Iran’s nuclear facilities, but with the deal, they would be able to keep tabs on Iran. At this point, Clinton contested, we could not walk away from the deal, as it is the best option there is.
She also took a swipe at Republican candidates who say they would tear up the agreement if they became president.
“That’s not leadership, that’s recklessness,” she said.
She argued that rejecting the deal now makes no sense. “Plus if we walk away now our capacity to sustain and enforce sanctions will be severely diminished. We will be blamed, not the Iranians,” Clinton said.
Clinton cast herself as a foreign policy hawk that has spent her career fighting for tighter sanctions on Iran. She said recognized that Iran is a “ruthless, brutal regime” that uses weapons against its own people screams “death to America!” in the streets and aims to destruct Israel.
Clinton said she repeatedly voted for sanctions on Iran because “there is absolutely no reason to trust Iran.” And while she said she’s keenly aware of Israel’s opposition to the deal, and its vulnerable position in the Middle East, she said she wouldn’t support the deal if she thought it would put Israel at risk.
She committed to inviting the Israeli prime minister to the White House soon after she enters office and standing with them throughout her presidency.
Clinton expects the Iran to cheat and try to break the deal, so she said she plans to take action against the Iranians if they do. “This isn’t the start of some broader diplomatic opening,” she said. “And we shouldn’t expect that this deal will lead to a broader change in their behavior. That shouldn’t be a premise for proceeding.”
