Potential Republican Presidential Candidates Debate Iran

Although there is still plenty of time until the nominees for the U.S. presidential election are officially announced and campaigning begins for both parties, the potential nominees — especially the Republicans — have already begun to express their platforms on a variety of issues. Among the most important subjects up for debate is the Iranian nuclear negotiation process, which has recently become a hot topic.

According to Tabnak reports, the first Republican summit for the 2016 presidential elections witnessed new differences of opinion forming over foreign policy issues, particularly Iran. In this meeting, Rand Paul fiercely opposed his fellow party members on subjects like Iran and Cuba.

ABC News reported that in last night’s gathering of Republicans, Sen. Rand Paul said that before imposing new sanctions on Iran, his congressional colleagues should allow sufficient opportunity for the negotiations to take place.

“I do think diplomacy is better than war,” he said, “and we should give diplomacy a chance.”

But these comments were met with opposition from Ted Cruz, another senator and potential Republican presidential candidate. Claiming that Iran was currently the biggest threat facing the U.S., Cruz called Iranian politicians “radicals” and brought Obama’s negotiations with them under fire.

Cruz has said that it is highly irregular and dangerous to negotiate with leaders who subscribe to [extreme] religious beliefs.

Marco Rubio, another potential option for the Republican nomination, agreed with Cruz and said that Paul was wrong to trust the president on Iran. In response, Paul told his colleagues that they were leading the United States down the path to war. “Are you ready to send ground troops into Iran? Are you ready to bomb them?” asked Paul. “Are you ready to send in 100,000 troops?”

Stating that war was the absolute last resort, Paul said, and given the current situation, imposing new sanctions would only result in Iran stepping away from the negotiations table and would have dire consequences for the U.S.

“I’m a big fan of trying to exert and trying the diplomatic option as long as we can,” said Paul. “If it fails, I will vote to resume sanctions and I would vote to have new sanctions. But if you do it in the middle of negotiations, you’re ruining it.”

But Cruz hit back at Paul with the following: “They’ve been negotiating for two years. This is the worst negotiation in the history of mankind.” Rubio also claimed that Iran was using the negotiations as a stalling tactic to buy more time.

“We can’t live with a nuclear Iran and can’t contain them,” Rubio said. Cruz once again defended the plan to intensify sanctions against Iran, and Rubio stated that the military option should never be taken off the table.

Many American news sources have been reporting on last night’s summit, and have understood it as evidence of a serious rift among the potential Republican presidential candidates over foreign policy. However, it is a long time until the Republican candidate is officially announced and the policies of their final choice are made clear.