Sen. Lindsey Graham blasted the Iran nuclear deal reached early Tuesday morning.

The 2016 Republican presidential candidate said the deal contradicts everything the U.S. originally aimed for and is guaranteed to ensure a nuclear arms race in the Middle East.

"This is the most dangerous, irresponsible step I have ever seen in the history of watching the Mideast. Barack Obama, John Kerry have been dangerously naive about the Mideast in general," Graham said on MSNBC's "Morning Joe."

He insisted that Kerry "does not listen very well," ignoring the pleas of Israel and the insinuations of the rest of the Middle East. The rest of the region is telling Kerry "something he doesn't want to hear," Graham said.

The South Carolina senator argued that the deal will allow Iran to build up its weapons cache, encouraging every other nation in the area to also invest in nuclear technology. Graham labeled the deal a "death sentence" for Israel.

"From the Israeli point of view, you've taken the biggest threat on the planet, who constantly chants 'death to Israel,' and ... you've given them the capability to become a nuclear nation."

Graham said that if he had been responsible for negotiating the deal, he would have tied the lessening of sanctions to good behavior, so that all inspections would relate to Iran's conduct. The senator said he "wouldn't give [Iran] a penny" until the Shiite government changed its behavior.

"This is a virtual declaration of war against Sunni Arabs. You're making every Sunni Arab nation recalculate," Graham said.

Congress has 60 days to look over the deal and decide whether to remove the economic sanctions against Iran. Obama made clear that he will veto any decision by Congress to keep the sanctions on Iran.

Graham said he would do his utmost to convince his fellow lawmakers in Congress to vote down the deal, insisting that the only solution is to go back to the table and try for a better outcome.

"They have taken it to a new level, and any senator who votes for this is voting for a nuclear arms race in the Mideast, and is voting to give the largest state sponsor of terrorism $18 billion," Graham said. "And what do you think they'll do with the money? Put it in roads and schools? It's going to go to [Syrian President Bashar] Assad, to Hezbollah and Hamas.

"If you care about the United States, you will not allow our chief antagonist to become a nuclear threshold nation guaranteed in nature with no restrictions to go beyond that," Graham said. "If you care about Americans you will not give this regime one penny because that money goes into a war machine that's aimed at us."