Rubio: Obama Administration’s Treatment Of Israel Is A “Historic And Tragic Mistake”

U.S. Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL), a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and Select Committee on Intelligence, delivered remarks on the floor of the U.S. Senate today urging consideration of two amendments he has sponsored regarding the Iran Nuclear Agreement Review Act of 2015.

The first amendment would require that President Obama certify when he submits the nuclear deal to Congress that Iran has publicly recognized Israel's right to exist as a Jewish state.

“And so the reason why the existence of Israel as a Jewish state is directly tied to this deal is simple -- we are about to turn over billions of dollars into their hands and we have every reason to believe that they will spend a significant portion of that money to destroy our strongest and most important ally in the region and one of our most important allies in the world,” Rubio said. “And so the first amendment I have offered is pretty straightforward. It calls for any deal to require that Iran recognize Israel's right to exist as a Jewish state.”

The second amendment would prohibit sanctions relief under an agreement with Iran until Iran has fully and verifiably implemented all of the requirements contained in the White House April 2nd outline of “Parameters for a Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action regarding the Islamic Republic of Iran’s Nuclear Program.

“The second amendment I will propose is even more straightforward, even more on point,” Rubio said. “Here's what it requires. It requires that this final deal be the deal the president says it is. Here's what I mean by that. I filed an amendment that basically took the White House's own fact sheet. And, by the way, I have problems with that fact sheet. The deal as the president describes it is not a deal that I believe will work. It's not a deal that I believe will prevent Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapon. But just to take them at their word, just to prove this point and to ensure that we are building safeguards into what we are doing here, I took the White House's own fact sheet, what they said the deal was about, and I say from this amendment that the final deal must be about those points, that the White House already says it is.”

Read a transcript of the Senator's floor speech: http://www.rubio.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/press-releases?ID=4123bbf1-c114-4b4c-9998-421ba6dac2d2