Republican presidential candidate Lindsey Graham said Thursday that the Iran nuclear deal was "a death sentence over time for Israel" after Senate Democrats blocked a Republican move to force a vote to reject the deal.
"The world lost, and I think the people who voted for this deal own it," the South Carolina senator told
Wolf Blitzer on CNN. "Our friends in Israel have to be very disappointed."
Forty-two Democrats and independents in the Senate
voted against a measure to advance legislation that would bring a vote on the Tehran deal, meaning that opponents failed to get the 60 votes needed in the 100-member chamber to proceed.
Democrats said that the vote killed efforts in the Republican-controlled Congress to derail the nuclear accord.
Republican Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said after the vote that another effort would be made next week.
Graham told Blitzer that as much as $100 billion that had been held up through sanctions against Iran would start flowing by the end of next week.
"The next president is not bound by it," he said. "If I'm president of the United States, I will not honor this deal."
Meanwhile, another GOP candidate, former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum, took to Twitter to urge Republicans to defeat the agreement.
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