Former Vice President Dick Cheney berated the Obama administration’s nuclear arrangement with Iran Monday evening when he appeared on Fox News with Neil Cavuto.
"The Iran deal is a terrible proposition. I can't think of anything that equals that," Cheney said. "For my standpoint it's unexplainable why you take the world's most deadly state sponsor of terror - you're going to lift the embargo on ballistics missiles, lift the embargo on conventional weapons, lay out a way for them ultimately to acquire nuclear weapons, give them $150 billion, and do that as though you can ignore the wishes and desires of our traditional allies in the region or even the threats to the United States. This is a very, very serious potential threat."
GOP presidential candidates have disagreed about what they would do with the agreement if they were to assume the office. Some candidates have promised to shred the agreement on their very first day, while others called for a more pragmatic approach.
Previously second in command only to President Bush, Cheney said he would "scrap the agreement."
"I would go back immediately and lay down a list of nonnegotiable demands - no nuclear weapons for the Iranians, no uranium enrichment for the Iranians, etc.," Cheney said. "I would put together a serious military option and be prepared to go to war if necessary. If you look back at the history of the least several years in the Middle East, we dealt with nuclear proliferation before. This isn't our first rodeo."
He advocated the next president increase the size of the military so America would be better prepared in case circumstances surfaced that required an immediate response, stating Obama’s military options with Iran are handcuffed due to defense spending cuts.
"If you look at the status of our military today, I don't think there's any way in the world Barack Obama was ever going to use military force," Cheney said.
Cheney accused Iran of already violating terms in the agreement and blamed the administration’s weakness as the reason for why geopolitical foes such as Russia, Syria, and Iran have been emboldened in taking actions against U.S. interests.