On January 12, 2014 Rep. Ileana Ros- Lehtinen of Florida asked for and was granted permission to address the US House of Representatives for 5 minutes regarding Cuba. There she railed against President Obama’s effort to normalize relations with that country:
“Mr. Speaker, I warn my colleagues to pay close attention to what the Obama administration is attempting to do in Cuba because this will track with its attempts at reconciliation with Iran, another rogue nation and state sponsor of terrorism. The administration’s efforts in Cuba have been the test case for Iran, and the two have paralleled each other.
While the administration was holding secret talks with the Castro regime, we know that he was penning secret letters to Iran’s Supreme Leader Khamenei and conceding to Iran the right to enrich uranium.
These concessions to Cuba are just the tip of the iceberg, and it will open the doors to similar measures in Iran where the Supreme Leader will see what is happening in Cuba and says: Hey, we can get away with that as well.
Both have serious consequences for our national security as other nations see that we lack the courage of our convictions, and they will be willing to test us. In fact, Nicolas Maduro after the prisoner exchange said, “We will exchange Leopoldo Lopez,” a human rights activist whom Nicolas Maduro has imprisoned in Venezuela, for one of the criminals in prison here in the United States. They want to test us; they want to see what they can get for holding innocents in prison.
Just look at the appeasements that this administration has made to Russia, to Iran, to North Korea. These rogue regimes will continue to act with impunity, and our allies have turned away from us because, instead of working with our allies, we have been appeasing our enemies.”
Source: Congressional Record
See related video: President Obama Delivers a Statement on Cuba https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pyw1iKif9Zs