After Iran launched more than a dozen missiles at an air base in Iraq where U.S. forces were stationed, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) blasted the Obama administration for giving Iran money enabling it to carry out such an attack.

Cruz spoke to Fox News' Sean Hannity on Tuesday night and reminded viewers that the Iran nuclear deal that sent billions of dollars to Iran made Americans in the Middle East less safe.

"If you look at Iran policy I think you've seen a dramatic shift," Cruz said. "Under Barack Obama, the policy was appeasement. The policy under the disastrous Iranian nuclear deal under Obama was to give over $100 billion to Iran. They literally flew $1.7 billion in cash in unmarked bills on pallets in the dead of night into Iran. In a very real sense, the missiles that we saw fired on U.S. service men and women tonight were paid for by the billions the Obama administration flooded the ayatollah with and if history teaches anything it's don't give billions of dollars to people who hate you and want to kill you."

Ted Cruz youtu.be

Cruz is referring to payments made to Iran in 2016 as a part of an agreement negotiated under the Obama administration among Iran, the U.S., and the United Kingdom, France, Russia, Germany, and China.



The agreement, called the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, freed Iran from some economic sanctions and allowed the country access to previously frozen funds overseas in exchange for Iran's agreement to scale back its nuclear power research and development.

In August 2016, the Obama administration arranged for $400 million in cash on wooden pallets to be flown into Iran as the first payment in a $1.7 billion settlement. The secret cash delivery came the same day that Iran released U.S. hostages and implemented the terms of the nuclear deal.

Iran undoubtedly gained access to billions of dollars from the nuclear deal, although whether that amount was actually $150 billion is a matter of some dispute.

Then-Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump was critical of the payment.

"Iran was in big trouble, they had sanctions, they were dying, we took off the sanctions and made this horrible deal and now they're a power," Trump said at the time, according to CNN. "We paid $400 million for the hostages. Such a bad precedent was set by Obama. We have two more hostages there right? What's are we going to pay for them? What we're doing is insane."

(H/T: The Daily Wire)