Dick Cheney slams ‘President Obama’s agreement’

WASHINGTON — Hours before Congress begins debating the virtues and drawbacks of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action with Iran in advance of a vote of disapproval of the deal, former vice president and longtime Republican politician Dick Cheney warns that the deal “has vast implications for the future security of the Jewish people.”

In an almost hour-long speech at the right-wing American Enterprise Institute, Cheney bashes what he calls “President Obama’s agreement,” which he says “will provide Iran with funds and weapons the regime will use in support of terror and for dominance in the Middle East.”

The removal of restrictions on ballistic missile development as delineated in the deal, Cheney says, “will give Iran the means to launch a nuclear attack against the US homeland.” Cheney argues that even one month before the deal was signed, Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter had expressed concerns about the development of intercontinental ballistic missiles.

“I know of no nation in history that has agreed that the means for its own destruction will be in the hands of another nation,” Cheney chides, arguing that the Iran deal had done just that. He described Obama as “historically unique” in making such a deal.

In addition to his critique of the relaxation of ballistic missile development restrictions, Cheney sharply criticizes what he describes as “the cave on enrichment.”

— Rebecca Stoil Shimoni