McMaster: Iran Nuclear Deal is "The Worst," Have To Wait And See If We Can "Live With It"

National security advisor H.R. McMaster fields a question about the future of the Iran nuclear deal from 'Fox News Sunday' host Chris Wallace.



"We have to recognize the fundamental flaws in this deal," McMaster said about President Obama's agreement with Iran. "It is -- as the president said -- the worst deal."



He explained: "It gave all these benefits to the Iranian regime upfront and these benefits, now they are using, to foment this humanitarian catastrophe in the greater Middle East."













CHRIS WALLACE, FOX NEWS SUNDAY: Is [President Trump] going to live with [Obama's nuclear deal with Iran] and try to find other ways to confront Iran on other fronts?



NATINOAL SECURITY ADVISOR H.R. MCMASTER: Well, we have to see what live with it means, right? Live with can't be giving this regime cover to develop a nuclear capability. And so, a lot of things have to happen immediately, rigorous enforcement of that agreement. It is under-enforced now. We know Iran has already violated parts of the agreement by --



WALLACE: But the IAEA says that they’re complying with it, sir.



MCMASTER: Well, the IAEA has identified and we've identified some of these breaches that Iran has then corrected. But what does that tell you about Iranian behavior? They’re not just walking up to the line on the agreement. They’re crossing the line at times.



So, there has to be much more rigorous enforcement of the deal and we have to recognize the fundamental flaws in this deal. It is -- as the president said -- it is the worst deal. It gave all these benefits to the Iranian regime upfront and these benefits now they are using to foment this humanitarian catastrophe in the greater Middle East.



This broad range of destructive behavior, including support for terrorist organizations, like Hezbollah, support for proxy forces like 80 percent of the affected fighters fighting on the side of the brutal, murderous Assad regime in Syria are Iranian proxies.



And so, we have to -- we have to recognize the broad range of Iranian destabilizing behavior and we can't allow this deal to enable that. Their missile programs, for example, the way they are seeding this Iranian network with more and more destructive capability that places all their neighbors at risk.