US President Barack Obama on Monday condemned rhetoric about the Iran deal from leading members of the Republican party, including GOP presidential hopeful Mike Huckabee, who has drawn criticism for comparing the accord to the Holocaust.
Huckabee called Barack Obama “feckless” and “naive” in an interview with Breitbart News on Saturday, adding that by signing the deal the President “will take the Israelis and march them to the door of the oven.”
Speaking at a press conference in Ethiopia on Monday, Obama said that such "outrageous attacks" have become "all too commonplace" among Republican politicians.
The US president described Huckabee's comments as “part of just a general pattern we have seen that would be considered ridiculous if it weren’t so sad.”
Huckabee has come under fire from both Jewish groups and the Democratic party after making the comparison between the Holocaust and the Iran deal.
However the Republican presidential candidate refused to back down, continuing to make his case against the Iran deal on Twitter.
He tweeted a series of messages Sunday with quotes from Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah supposedly threatening Israel with a holocaust.
Obama, speaking in Ethiopia during a tour of African nations, said the majority of the world's nuclear scientists and non-proliferation experts backed the July 14 accord, indicating it was the best way to stop Iran acquiring nuclear weapons.
"There is a reason why 99 percent of the world thinks it's a good deal -- it's because it's a good deal," Obama said during a joint press conference with Ethiopian prime minister Hailemariam Desalegn in the capital Addis Ababa.
"The good news is that I've not yet heard a factual argument on other side that holds up to scrutiny," he added.
By Sam Sokol
This article has been edited from the source material.
