National Government Rubio Says Will Reimpose Sanctions on Iran if Elected

WASHTINGTON — Senator and presidential candidate Marco Rubio has said he will undo the Obama administration's recent nuclear deal with Iran if elected, calling the notion that Iran will live up to the negotiated deal and abandon any plans of building a nuclear weapon a "fantasy."

Sen. Marco Rubio

In an interview with 'CBS This Morning' on Friday, Rubio said the $100 billion in economic sanctions that had been place should have been increased rather than removed in an effort to get Iran to completely abandon its uranium enrichment program, which is needed for powering nuclear energy plants and building nuclear weapons.

The rebuke from Republican opposition in general has been sharp, with one GOP Senator, Jim Risch of Idaho telling Kerry, "You guys have been bamboozled."

Defending the deal in front of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Thursday, Secretary of State John Kerry said the only alternative to the deal was military action, and criticized the idea of a better deal, calling it "some sort of unicorn arrangement involving Iran's complete capitulation. That's a fantasy, plain and simple."

The deal made in Vienna this month between the U.S., the E.U., the U.K., Russia, and Iran states that Iran will not produce enough enriched uranium to build nuclear weapons, but will give enough to enable the country to continue with its plan to operate a nuclear energy plant. That deal will hold for 10 years if it passes Congress' review.

If Congress does not approve of the deal, Obama says he will veto lawmakers' vote, which would require a supermajority to override.

Kerry said that such a veto would be a "repudiation of President Obama's initiative and a statement that when the executive department negotiates, it doesn't mean anything anymore because we have 535 Secretaries of State."

Congress has 60 days to approve or disapprove of the deal since the day it was made (July 14).