In Speech, Rubio Slams Obama's Outreach to Iran and Cuba

In Speech, Rubio Slams Obama's Outreach to Iran and Cuba
NEW YORK — Aug 14, 2015, 12:03 AM ET
By SERGIO BUSTOS Associated Press

Republican presidential candidate Marco Rubio is slamming President
Barak Obama's outreach to Iran and Cuba, calling his diplomacy with the
two nations evidence of "every flawed strategic, moral and economic
notion" that has driven his foreign policy.

In a blistering speech Friday to the conservative-leaning Foreign Policy
Initiative in New York, set for delivery the same day Secretary of State
John Kerry re-opens the U.S. embassy in Havana, the Florida senator will
say that Obama has made no efforts "to stand on the side of freedom."

"He has been quick to deal with the oppressors, but slow to deal with
the oppressed," Rubio says in excerpts of prepared remarks released by
his campaign. "And his excuses are paper-thin."

A member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, the Cuban-American
lawmaker has made foreign policy a centerpiece of his campaign for
president. In the speech, he pledges to "roll back" what he termed
Obama's "concessions" to Cuba and the recently completed nuclear deal
with Iran and says he will "repair the damage done to America's standing
in the Middle East."

Rubio says he would demand that the Cuban government carry out political
and human rights reforms to maintain diplomatic relations and would
return the country to the U.S. list of state sponsors of terrorism until
it stops "helping North Korea evade international sanctions" and
"harboring fugitives from American justice."

The Obama administration has said it is normalizing ties with Cuba after
more than 50 years of hostility failed to shake the communist
government's hold on power. It argues that dealing directly with Cuba
over issues including human rights and trade is far likelier to produce
democratic and free-market reforms over the long term.

While the issue is one of personal importance to Rubio, whose parents
emigrated from Cuba in the 1950s, it doesn't top the list of foreign
policy issues that matter to Americans.

A poll released Friday by the Associated Press-NORC Center for Public
Affairs Research found that only 1 in 3 Americans said it was important
to hear from the next president about their approach to Cuba, compared
with nearly 9 of 10 who wanted to hear about terrorism and cyberattacks
by foreign countries or terrorist groups.

Roughly three-quarters of Americans said it was important to hear from
the next president about Iran. Rubio in his speech vows to re-impose the
economic sanctions U.S. and other world powers agreed to lift in
exchange for curbs on Tehran's nuclear program.

"I will give the mullahs a choice: either you have an economy or you
have a nuclear program, but you cannot have both," he says.

Any talks to come afterward must result in a deal that terminates Iran's
nuclear program, he says, and would also be tied to "Iran's broader
conduct, from human rights abuses to support for terrorism and threats
against Israel."

"There would be no room for equivocation, no room for manipulation and
no room for cheating," Rubio says. "Some will say there will also be no
room for negotiations. But history proves otherwise. Iran may not return
to the table immediately, but it will return when its national interests
require it to do so."

Source: In Speech, Rubio Slams Obama's Outreach to Iran and Cuba - ABC
News -
http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/wireStory/speech-rubio-slams-obamas-outreach-iran-cuba-33076469