POTUS Claims to Oppose Authoritarianism at UN, While Repressive Regimes Meet Under His Nose
WASHINGTON – Congressman Mario Diaz-Balart (FL-25) released the following statement after reports of Iran’s Hassan Rouhani meeting with Raul and Fidel Castro. Meanwhile, President Obama told world leaders to reject authoritarianism at the United Nations General Assembly this morning.
"On the heels of the so-called Non-Aligned Movement summit in Venezuela, Iran's Hassan Rouhani traveled to Havana to meet with the Castro brothers to further their dangerous, anti-American agenda.
“The repressive dictatorships in Iran and Cuba have another trait in common: they have gained unwarranted concessions from a U.S. President. In response to President Obama's capitulations, the regime in Iran has responded with threats to annihilate the U.S. and Israel, while acting with increasingly dangerous and provocative aggression to the U.S. military. Meanwhile, the regime in Cuba continues to harbor fugitives from U.S. justice and is on track to perpetrate more political arrests this year than the 8,616 documented arrests in 2015. President Obama's misguided policy toward these brutal regimes has thrown a lifeline to their struggling economies and encouraged an even cozier relationship between two of America's foes.
“Regrettably, President Obama's policy of appeasement has made the world a more dangerous place for Americans. While the Castro brothers hosted the titular head of a terrorist state just ninety miles from our shores, President Obama encouraged others in his speech before the U.N. General Assembly to oppose authoritarianism and the politics of ‘the strong man.’ Unfortunately, the President's words do not match his deeds. Instead, President Obama chose to legitimize and embolden oppressive tyrants in Iran and Cuba with weakened sanctions and engagement. By coddling and strengthening the oppressors, he has failed the oppressed who struggle to achieve democracy and human rights in two of the most repressive corners of the globe.”
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