Iran's nuclear ambitions are a bigger threat to America than the Islamic State (ISIS) militants, Sen. Ted Cruz says.
"As grave as the threat from ISIS is, in my view the most significant threat to U.S. national security remains the threat of Iran acquiring nuclear weapons capability," Cruz told the
Washington Free Beacon.
Cruz said America must not use the fight against the Islamic State group to appease Iran because it would only "facilitate their acquiring nuclear weapon capability." He also blasted Obama administration policies that "have increased the chances of Iran acquiring nuclear weapon capability, and have perversely increased the chances of future military conflict."
Answering "what should a strong president do," Cruz touted his legislation that "would immediately re-impose sanctions on Iran, would strengthen those sanctions to make them as crippling as humanly possible, and then it lays out a clear path to how Iran can lift those sanctions.”
The Texas Republican's assessment of the Iran threat echoed that of former Secretary of State
Henry Kissinger, who in a recent interview declared "a conflict with ISIS — important as it is — is more manageable than a confrontation with Iran."
But Cruz told the Free Beacon the Islamic State group and Iran have one thing in common: Both are "radical Islamic terrorists who want to kill us. The one thing on which they agree is killing Americans."
"If we don’t act now and if they are able to consolidate power and control of a nation state with massive oil revenues, the inevitable consequence of that will be a significant and perhaps even massive loss of life here in the United States,"Cruz told the Free Beacon.
America's objective is straightforward, he said.
"We have a job to do, and it’s not transform distant countries into democratic utopias,"said Cruz. "It’s not turn Iraq into Switzerland. It’s to prevent people who want to kill Americans from killing Americans.”
"I think it is unquestionably right that we are tired of sending our sons and daughters to distant lands to engage with nation-building,"he added. "But I think it is a profound misreading of the American spirit to confuse that with Americans being unwilling to defend themselves, being unwilling to stand up to serious and real national security threats, and to stand up with overwhelming force.”