The White House has criticized Republican presidential candidates Donald Trump and Ted Cruz for planning an anti-Iran deal protest on Capitol Hill.

Cruz and Trump plan to hold a protest on Sept. 9 on the West Front of the Capitol which will give them a megaphone to attack the Iran deal as two of the top GOP presidential candidates.

“Senator Cruz and Donald Trump have announced they are going to hold a big pro-war rally on the steps of the United States Capitol,” press secretary Josh Earnest told reporters on Friday.

The phrase “pro-war rally” is a familiar one for Earnest as he has already used it to dismiss another protest organized by Cruz in July against the Iran agreement with the P5+1 group.

Earnest also criticized other people, including former Vice President Dick Cheney for having a plan to slam the Iran deal in a speech next week.

“The same people making the same arguments against the Iran deal were the people who advocated for us getting into the war in Iraq in 2002 and 2003,” Earnest said. “The fault lines of this debate should be familiar to anybody who has been covering American politics for the past 12 or 13 years.”

Iran and the P5+1 group of countries -- the US, Britain, France, Russia, China, and Germany – announced the conclusion of nuclear negotiations in the Austrian capital, Vienna, on July 14. Congress will vote on the July accord, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, in September.

With the number of pro-Iran deal Senators reaching 30, the White House needs only four more votes to be able to sustain a presidential veto of a resolution against the deal.

"Public commitments are much more valuable than private ones,” Earnest said regarding the vote count. “We’re not putting anybody in the yes column until they have issued a public statement indicating their support.”

By Press TV