Ted Cruz: Waiving Iran Sanctions 'Would Be a Serious Mistake'

Sen Ted Cruz. Photo credit: Mark Wilson/Getty Images

As lawmakers work on a legislative fix for the Iran deal, the Texas senator says it 'endangers American lives.'

Texas senator Ted Cruz on Thursday suggested that President Donald Trump buck members of the foreign policy establishment who are “desperately” trying to save the 2015 nuclear deal and not waive sanctions lifted under the agreement ahead of a series of related deadlines.

“Waiving the sanctions on the ayatollah while protesters are dying in the streets would be a serious mistake,” Cruz told THE WEEKLY STANDARD, referring to the anti-regime protests that swept Iran starting in late December and have resulted in thousands of arrests. “We should be doing everything humanly possible to support, to encourage those protests, to tell the Iranian people, we stand with you.”

Trump must decide in coming days whether to continue waiving sanctions on Iran that were lifted under the nuclear deal. Not waiving the sanctions, Cruz said, is a step that “naturally follows” from the president’s refusal to certify a condition related to the nuclear deal in October, namely that continued sanctions relief to Iran is proportionate to the measures taken by Iran under the deal.

But he noted that there are elements in Washington strongly pushing to preserve the deal.

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