Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker on Saturday urged President Obama to abandon his tentative pact with Iran over its nuclear arms research.
“We need to tell the president to back off from a bad deal,” Walker said at the Iowa Faith and Freedom Coalition summit in Waukee, Iowa.
Walker claimed Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran’s Supreme Leader, has despised the U.S. for decades. The foreign leader’s change of heart, he argued, was thus probably insincere.
{mosads}“They have not changed much since then,” Walker said, recalling the Iran hostage crisis that kept 66 Americans in captivity between 1979 and 1981.
“Their approach is still the same.”
Walker’s remarks came as he mulls a likely 2016 Oval Office bid. He argued Saturday that Obama’s brand of leadership was one of weakness.
“I get so frustrated with this president because he drew a line in the sand and then let people cross it,” he said of Obama’s dealings with hostile regimes like Iran.
The Obama administration announced its potential bargain with Iran on April 2. Obama called it a “historic” moment in diplomacy during remarks from the Rose Garden the same day.
The draft accord would lift economic sanctions on Iran in exchange for greater restrictions on its nuclear energy program.
Tehran has promised it will allow more frequent atomic inspections and caps on its centrifuge and uranium stockpiles as part of the deal.
Secretary of State John Kerry spearheaded U.S. efforts at the bargaining table last month in Lausanne, Switzerland. Britain, China, France, Germany and Russia aided his efforts there.
Iran and the U.S. will next polish the deal’s details before a June 30 final deadline. Obama has long argued that such negotiations are the best path away from an Iran with nuclear arms.