Rubio Slams Obama’s ‘Dangerous’ Cuba Policy

Marco Rubio, R-Fla., condemned administration overtures to Iran and Cuba Friday in a speech laying out his foreign policy ideas.

Rubio, a son of immigrants who fled Cuba, spoke at the the Foreign Policy Initiative in New York City as Secretary of State John Kerry paid a visit to Havana to preside over the historic re-opening of the U.S. embassy.

“I believe they represent the convergence of almost every flawed strategic, moral and economic notion that has driven President Obama’s foreign policy, and as such are emblematic of so numerous crises he has worsened around the world“.

In his speech, Rubio laid out a three-part plan to reverse course both on Cuba and Iran. That could allow Democrats, including Hillary Clinton to argue that Bush, Rubio and numerous other Republican candidates are out of date and out of touch.

First, on day one, I will give the Castros a choice: either continue repressing your people and lose the diplomatic relations and benefits provided by President Obama, or carry out meaningful political and human rights reforms and receive increased U.S. trade, investment, and support.

Obama has said that Republicans are opposing the Iran nuclear deal because his name is on it.

The remarks came as American diplomats were preparing to raise their flag above the U.S. Embassy in Havana for the first time in more than five decades.

Marco Rubio delivered a searing indictment of President Obama’s diplomatic outreach to Cuba and Iran Friday while pledging to invite dissidents from both countries to his inaugural address if he’s elected president. Jeb Bush, who speaks fluent Spanish and has a Mexican-born wife and deep ties to the Miami exile community, was leading Rubio in a July poll of Cuban-American Republicans 43 to 31 percent.

“Hillary Clinton will not overturn these deals as president”, he said.

“The same President who visited a U.S. prison to talk about inequities in our criminal justice system is silent about the fact that minor offenses in Iran and Cuba are punishable by indefinite detention, torture, or even death – and these offenses often include nothing more than speaking out with the wrong political opinion”, he said. Rubio, who opposes the deal, will say that a President Rubio would reimpose sanctions on Iran and ask Congress to pass “crushing new measures that target human rights abusers and Iran’s leaders involved in financing and overseeing Iran’s sponsorship of terrorism”.

Roughly three-quarters of Americans said it was important to hear from the next president about Iran.

But opponents say Iran cannot be trusted to stop development of its nuclear program.

Rubio did not just lash out against Obama’s foreign policy, but also against Obama’s approach toward his domestic critics.

Nor, under this deal, must Tehran reveal the military-related dimensions of its nuclear work to date, leaving the world dangerously ignorant of how close it already is to developing and deploying a nuclear weapon and also leaving inspectors without a baseline against which to judge Iranian compliance in the future.