Rubio: Iran deal about Obama’s ‘legacy’

Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) is accusing President Obama of pushing for a deal on Iran’s nuclear weapons to cement his own legacy back home. 

“I think driving a lot of this is domestic politics — the ability to say at the end of his term that he was the one that got this deal done, that it was an achievement and that a future president was the one that lost that achievement,” Rubio said in an interview Tuesday on Fox News’s “Kelly File.”

“There’s no doubt that is part of the checklist as they look to build the legacy. Unfortunately, I think it leaves this country in a very dangerous position and our strongest ally in the Middle East, Israel, in an even more dangerous position,” he added. 

This week, Obama dismissed a potential extension of talks over Iran’s nuclear program, which faces a June 30 deadline. The self-imposed deadline for a deal has been extended twice, most recently in November.

“I don’t see a further extension being useful if they have not agreed to the basic formulation and the bottom line the world requires,” Obama said Monday. 

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said last weekend that Iran also didn’t want an extension, and Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said in a statement that he could support a potential deal, according to Reuters.

Rubio, a potential 2016 presidential candidate, has pushed for greater Iranian concessions, including over its rocket systems. Still, he said he has “no doubt” Obama wants Iran to abandon its nuclear program.

“He thinks that if he can get a deal that delays it by five years, that’s a good thing,” Rubio said on Fox. “I think that the Iranians believe that Barack Obama and John Kerry are desperate for a deal, and I think that they sense it.”