Watch: Obama Just Responded to Attacks on Iran Nuke Deal in a Way That Could Worry Critics Even More

In an interview published Wednesday, President Obama said it was “doubtful” many current Republicans would support the Iran nuclear deal. The president also argued the “yardstick” for success cannot be whether or not Iran can obtain a nuclear weapon.

Speaking to Thomas L. Friedman of The New York Times after the terms of the deal were announced, Obama, when asked if any of the “400 Republican candidates” running for president would support the deal, said, “I think it’s doubtful that we get a lot of current Republican elected officials supporting this deal.”

“I think there’s a certain party line that has to be towed, within their primaries and among many sitting members of Congress,” he continued. “But that’s not across the board. It’ll be interesting to see what somebody like a Rand Paul has to say about this. But I think that if I were succeeded by a Republican president — and I’ll be doing everything that I can to prevent that from happening — but if I were, that Republican president would be in a much stronger position than I was when I came into office, in terms of constraining Iran’s nuclear program.”

Obama also did not mince words after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called the deal “an historic mistake for the world.” The two world leaders spoke on the phone Tuesday after the deal was announced.

“[I] think it’s fair to say that under my administration, we’ve done more to facilitate Israeli capabilities,” Obama said. “And I’ve also said that I’m prepared to go further than any other administration’s gone before in terms of providing them additional security assurances from the United States.” He continued:

The thing I want to emphasize is that people’s concerns here are legitimate. Hezbollah has tens of thousands of missiles that are pointed toward Israel. They are becoming more sophisticated. The interdiction of those weapon flows has not been as successful as it needs to be. There are legitimate concerns on the part of the gulf countries about Iran trying to stir up and prompt destabilizing events inside their countries…

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