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VIDEO: Rubio on Flawed Iran Nuclear Deal, North Korea Summit

Jun 5, 2018 | Press Releases

Washington, D.C. – U.S. Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL) appeared on Fox News’ America’s Newsroom this morning to discuss the upcoming summit with North Korea and the flawed Iran deal.
 
A rough transcript of Rubio’s remarks is below:
 
RUBIO ON IRAN: Look, if Iran starts enriching uranium they have violated the JCPOA, and Europe should get out of it and everybody else who signed it should get out of it, because Iran will be violating the deal that they all wanted us to stay in. Here’s the bottom line though, they’re not going to able to do that. They can be able to enrich, but ultimately the [Trump Administration’s maximum pressure strategy after U.S. withdrawal from the Iran deal] is working. It doesn’t matter what these other countries do. There is no major company in Europe whose legal counsel is going to allow them to go into Iran and do work at the expense of not being able to have to access to the U.S. economy. So this is all pyrotechnics. It is just them moving around, trying to pose and flex to look tough. But in the end, the deal is going to hurt them. You are probably going to see mass protests this summer in Iran. They are already facing a drought and their economy is in bad shape. So they’re in a bad spot right now.”
 

 
“Yeah I mean they want to force Europe to stay in the deal, because they desperately need it. Even with the deal in place, Iran’s economy was a disaster. But let’s be clear about Europe and why they care about this. They are our allies and our partners and they have their constituencies, but the reason why they care about this deal is nothing to do with diplomacy. It’s because they have these major companies in Germany and throughout Europe that are desperate to get market share and do a little bit of work in Iran. That is what this is all about. But for us it is about national security and about protecting this country and our allies. And it’s all going to work out fine. In the end, Iran will be back at the table because their economy is collapsing, and the U.S. pulling out of the JCPOA is only going to make it worse.
 

 
RUBIO ON NORTH KOREA: “Well there should not be high expectations, because I don’t think you’re going to have them emerge after 24 hours and say that we have a deal and we struck a deal. Because if they do, it will be a bad one. My sense is that it will be the beginning of a process. My prediction is that at some point during this process, if I were the North Koreans, I’d want to extend this. I would imagine China is probably trying to finagle its way into it. So I think you should anticipate that at some point down the road, this will turn into a China-US-South Korea-North Korea talks. To have a good deal with North Korea is going to take a little bit of time. I think the important thing for us is we should not be lifting any sanctions or providing any relief until we see a clear path forward on complete and irreversible denuclearization and getting rid of the missiles, but that may take a while. That is not going to happen in one meeting, so I think everybody needs to understand that.”