Clinton warns Iran on military action if it reneges on nuke deal The former secretary of state voices support for the accord, but says she will not hesitate to take military action, if peaceful options exhausted.

Hillary Clinton on Wednesday opened the door to taking a more forceful position against Iran than President Barack Obama, saying she would not hesitate to use military action if the country violated the landmark nuclear agreement it struck with six world powers earlier this year.

“I understand the skepticism so many feel about Iran, I too am deeply concerned about Iranian oppression and the need to confront it,” she said in her morning address at the Brookings Institution. “It is a ruthless regime that has the blood of Americans and so many others on its hands."


“Is [the deal] perfect?” she later asked. “Of course not. No agreement like this ever is. But is it a strong agreement? Yes, it is."

While Obama has said the United States would not take the military option off the table, Clinton said her "distrust and verify" approach means that as commander-in-chief, she would act swiftly and aggressively if it becomes clear that Iran is not keeping up its end of the bargain.

"I will not hesitate to take military action if Iran tries to obtain a nuclear weapon," the former secretary of state said. "Should it become necessary in the future, having exhausted peaceful alternatives, to turn to military force, we will have preserved and in some cases enhanced our capacity to act."

Clinton's slightly more hawkish stance than her former boss gave the Democratic front-runner a chance to remind voters of her foreign policy expertise at a time when most headlines are attached to the email scandal dogging her campaign. On Tuesday, Clinton gave in to pressure from supporters and critics, and delivered a more direct apology for her exclusive use of a private email account while serving as secretary of state.

Clinton's speech on Wednesday, which included a five-point plan to counter Iranian influence in the region, also landed just as the debate over the deal reaches new heights in Washington.

While Senate Democrats on Tuesday secured enough votes to block any resolution disapproving of the deal from reaching a Senate vote, the measure's opponents have also been mounting a last-ditch political counterattack, including a speech from former Vice President Dick Cheney on Tuesday and a rally featuring Republican candidates Donald Trump and Ted Cruz later on Wednesday.

While Clinton did not specifically mention Trump or Cruz in her remarks, she did respond to Cheney by name, also mentioning Republicans Scott Walker, Jeb Bush, and Marco Rubio.

“Vice President Cheney may hope that the American people may simply forget, but the truth is by the time President Obama took office and I became secretary of state, Iran was racing toward a nuclear capability,” she said.

“Several Republican candidates boast they’ll tear up this agreement in 2017, more than a year after it’s been implemented,” she added later in the speech. “That’s not leadership, that’s recklessness."

Clinton’s proposal includes a commitment to more support for Israeli security, an expansion of military presence in the Persian Gulf region, and a plan to bring home each American citizen currently detained or missing in Iran, among other measures.

"The United States will never allow you to acquire a nuclear weapon,” she said in a message to Iranian leaders. "As president, I will take whatever actions are necessary to protect the United States and our allies."

Clinton's top policy aide, Jake Sullivan, on Tuesday held a conference call to brief top campaign fundraisers on the speech, according to people on the call. Clinton’s team is eager to use her tenure in Foggy Bottom as a chance to make her look presidential, and Clinton and her aides both see the Iran agreement as an accomplishment to which she can proudly point.

Clinton spent ample time on Wednesday recounting her own role in implementing sanctions on Iran, as she sometimes does on the campaign trail, and repeatedly reminding the audience about her support for Israel.

“I would not support this agreement for one second if I thought it would put Israel in greater danger,” she insisted, listing her previous diplomatic work with the country. “I would invite the Israeli Prime Minister to the White House during my first month in office."

“I support this deal. I support it as part of a larger strategy toward Iran. By now, the outcome of the deal in Congress is no longer in much doubt,” Clinton said, noting that the deal does not imply a normalization of relations with Iran. “So we’ve got to start looking ahead to what comes next: enforcing it, deterring Iran and its proxies, and strengthening our allies."

During the address, Clinton also made a point to reaffirm the importance of the Persian Gulf to the United States, promising to keep the Strait of Hormuz open and to expand the American military presence in the area. This plank of her proposal also includes a plan to bolster intelligence sharing and missile defense to American allies in the gulf.

“We need to be clear-eyed about what we can expect from Iran,” she said. “This isn’t the start of some broader diplomatic opening. And we shouldn’t expect that this deal will lead to a broader change in their behavior. That shouldn’t be a premise for proceeding."

Clinton’s plan also calls for upping American support for Israeli rocket and missile defenses, as well as intelligence sharing, on top of improved tunnel detection technology.

And she pledged to enforce and perhaps expand American human rights sanctions on Iran, mentioning the country’s detention of its political prisoners.

Singling out Hezbollah, Clinton also said she plans to back a coalition countering Iranian proxies. The plan calls for pushing both Turkey and Qatar to cease their financial support of Hamas, as well as encouraging American partners to stop Iranian planes from entering their airspace on the way to Yemen and Syria. And, she said, she would be open to bolstering sanctions on Iran’s terrorism sponsorship and arms distributions to countries like North Korea.

Finally, the fifth plank of Clinton’s proposal includes a plan to invest more in local diplomacy and to provide material assistance to other countries in the region to help them defend their borders and create systems to guard against terrorism.

“Without a deal we would have no credible inspections of Iran’s nuclear facilities. With a deal we will have unprecedented access,” the former secretary of state said before she headlines two DC-area campaign fundraisers on Wednesday and returns to the campaign trail with Thursday stops in Ohio and Wisconsin. “On balance, the far riskier course right now would be to walk away. Great powers can’t just junk agreements and expect the rest of the world to go along with us."