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Trump lashes ex-secretary of state Kerry for Iran meetings
WASHINGTON, Sept 15, 2018 (BSS/AFP) – President Donald Trump lashed out at
former secretary of state John Kerry for his meetings with Iran’s foreign
minister after the Obama-appointee had left office.
“John Kerry had illegal meetings with the very hostile Iranian Regime which
can only serve to undercut our great work to the detriment of the American
people,” Trump said on Twitter late Thursday.
“He told them to wait out the Trump Administration!” he said, ending his
Tweet with the word “BAD!”
Kerry, who negotiated the 2015 Iran nuclear deal which Trump scrapped this
year, said during a tour to promote his new book “Every Day is Extra” that he
had met Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif “three or four times”
since he left office and Trump had entered the White House.
Without commenting on the legality of such meetings, the current US
Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo, accused his predecessor of “actively
undermining US policy.”
“What secretary Kerry has done is unseemly and unprecedented,” said Pompeo,
who is seen as an anti-Iran hawk.
“This is a former secretary of state engaged with the world’s largest State
sponsor of terror and according to him… he was telling them to wait out
this administration.”
A spokesman for Kerry said there was nothing improper about his conduct.
“Secretary Kerry stays in touch with his former counterparts around the
world just like every previous Secretary of State,” the spokesman said in a
statement.
“And in a long phone conversation with Secretary Pompeo earlier this year
he went into great detail about what he had learned about the Iranian’s
view.”
“No secrets were kept from this administration,” the statement said,
accusing Kerry’s successor of “political theatrics.”
– Straight talk –
Asked by conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt on Wednesday if he had offered
Zarif advice on how to deal with Trump’s decision to withdraw from the pact,
he replied: “No, that’s not my job.
“What I have done is tried to elicit from him what Iran might be willing to
do in order to change the dynamic in the Middle East for the better.
“I’ve been very blunt to Foreign Minister Zarif, and told him look, you
guys need to recognize that the world does not appreciate what’s happening
with missiles, what’s happening with Hezbollah, what’s happening with Yemen,”
he added, echoing the current administration’s denunciation of Tehran’s
“malign” influence.
Conservative commentators immediately leapt on the act as evidence of
“treason,” with some calling for Kerry to go to prison.
Asked by a Republican lawmaker during a congressional hearing about the so-
called shadow diplomacy, Manisha Singh, an assistant secretary of state, said
Thursday: “It’s unfortunate if people from a past administration would try to
compromise the progress we’re trying to make in this administration.”
State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert added: “I’ve seen him brag
about the meetings that he has had with the Iranian government and Iranian
government officials. I’ve also seen reports that he is apparently providing,
according to reports, advice to the Iranian government.
“The best advice that he should be giving the Iranian government is stop
supporting terror groups around the world.”
BSS/AFP/SSS/0913 hrs