Former Speaker of the United States House of Representatives John Boehner was back in Washington Friday to weigh in on the Iranian elections currently underway and urge the Obama administration to speak out in support of the the Iranian people, The Hill reported.
"[Iranians] need to hear the people of the United States stands with them, not with the regime," he said at a speech hosted by the Organization of Iranian-American Communities.
Boehner criticized the elections as "a phony attempt to prop up an ailing regime."
"They're not really elections," he said. "You can put lipstick on a pig, but it's still a pig."
Boehner said the administration missed an opportunity in the 2009 Iranian presidential elections to stand with the protestors, who were subsequently crushed by the regime.
"We avoided that opportunity," he said.
Boehner also blasted the Obama administration for inking a "flawed" nuclear deal with Tehran that he said the president "rammed through" with little support that "rewards the Iranian regime."
"It's a regime that will use the windfall of money to threaten neighbors ... and supply militants with weapons intended to kill Americans," he said.
"I wish I could say my concerns have been eased since leaving office," said Boehner, who retired from Congress late last year.
Boehner said the deal supplied the regime under the mullahs' Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei with "political and financial oxygen."
"President Obama refused to listen [and] ignored the concerns of the American people," he said. "It's such a bad deal, the Ayatollah won't even have to cheat to be steps away from having a nuclear weapon."
He also criticized the Obama administration for paying Iran's regime $1.7 billion on the same day Tehran released four political prisoners.
"Real change in Iran cannot be achieved in billion-dollar payments and one-sided deals," he said.
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