Rand Paul Pans Trump For Iran Strike: There Was ‘Much Less Violence’ Under Iran Nuclear Deal

Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) rebuked President Donald Trump for ordering the killing of one of Iran’s top military leaders in an appearance on Fox News Tuesday, arguing the United States was safer under the previous president’s nuclear deal with Iran.

Paul, an ardent non-interventionist and one of the few Republicans who has criticized the deadly strike on Iranian general Qasem Soleimani in Iraq, argued on Fox “there is much more likely to be attacks now” on America.

“We’ve taken diplomacy off the table,” Paul said. “The only possibility now is military escalation.”

Fox News anchor Bill Hemmer pushed back by asking if there wasn’t “much diplomacy to begin with.”

Paul pointed out that while he was critical of the Iran nuclear deal that was reached under President Barack Obama and abandoned by Trump, “it was a big mistake to pull out of the Iran agreement. We should have tried to build on the Iran agreement.”

“I think it is the death of diplomacy, and I see no way to get it back started again until, sort of, the revenge of the Iranian people is somehow sated,” Paul continued.

“I hate this. I hate that this is where we are going. I have been someone who has been for engagement, but there was much less killing, there was much less violence after the Iran agreement. In fact, there was a lull, a period in which I think we were headed towards a much more stable situation in Iran, and now I think that’s gone. And I think it may be gone for a lifetime.”

Paul rejected Trump’s case, made to radio host Rush Limbaugh, that the United States was justified in killing Soleimani because he was responsible for the deaths of Americans: “Is Soleimani a bad guy? Yes. Is the guy who replaces him a bad guy? Yes.”

“We have to ask ourselves, and President Trump has said this millions of times,” Paul continued, “Saddam Hussein was a bad guy but taking him out destabilized the region. It is about the broader implications of killing someone, not whether they’re evil or not.”

Paul added that the strike on Soleimani will serve to silence moderate voices in Iran and those who oppose the regime, with the country “rallying around the flag.”

Watch above, via Fox News.