Mick Huckabee defends claim that Iran nuclear deal amounts to marching Israelis to 'door of the oven' in Holocaust comparison

'This Iran deal should be rejected by both Democrats and Republicans'

Mike Huckabee is sticking with his criticism of the Iran nuclear deal, after first making the comment when denouncing President Barack Obama for his role in the agreement reached by the United States and other world powers. (AP Photo/John Locher, File)

The Republican presidential candidate Mick Huckabee has defended controversial criticism of the Iran nuclear deal as amounting to marching Israelis “to the door of the oven”, in a clear reference to the Holocaust.

Huckabee, a sometime Fox News host and former Arkansas governor, criticised President Barack Obama for his role in the agreement with the Middle Eastern nation reached by the US and fellow P5+1 nations of China, France, Russia and Germany.

In comments which have been regarded as equating President Obama to Adolf Hitler, Huckabee urged Congress to reject the nuclear deal, which saw Iran agreeing to limit its country’s nuclear programmes in exchange for the lifting of sanctions worth billions of dollars.

"This president's foreign policy is the most feckless in American history,” Huckabee said in an interview with conservative news website Breitbart News.

"He's so naive he would trust the Iranians and he would take the Israelis and basically march them to the door of the oven.

"This Iran deal should be rejected by both Democrats and Republicans.

"We forget Iranians have never kept a deal in 36 years under the ayatollah. There's no reason to think they will suddenly start doing it."

Democratic National Committee Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz said Mr Huckabee's was "grossly irresponsible" and called on him to apologise.

The National Jewish Democratic Council (NJDC) "denounced" Huckabee for invoking the Holocaust in "inappropriate and offensive ways".

The NJDC continued in a statement seen by The Guardian: "To state that President Obama is leading Israelis ‘to the door of the oven’ is not only disgustingly offensive to the president and the White House, but shows utter, callous disregard for the millions of lives lost in the Shoah and to the pain still felt by their descendants today."

However, a spokeswoman for Huckabee said his comments reflected a long-standing position that "the Iran deal is a bad deal, bad for America and bad for Israel".

The politician also sent a tweet maintaining his stance.

Huckabee has entered the race to become the Republican presidential candidate for the second time, after he finished second in the GOP primaries in 2008 after he won the Iowa caucus.

However, he is struggling to compete with 16 others in the running, including front-runner New York businessman Donald Trump who has been widely slammed after he said Mexicans are "rapists" who have taken "drugs" and "crime" to the US.