One-time vice presidential candidate and former U.S. Sen. Joe Lieberman said on Sept. 16 that it was a mistake for former Secretary of State John Kerry to meet with Iran’s foreign minister about the Iran nuclear deal.
The Trump administration decided in May to pull out of the Iran deal, which had given Iran relief from sanctions, in exchange for making changes to its uranium enrichment program to deter it from developing nuclear weapons. Trump said the deal was ineffective in preventing Iran from building up a nuclear arsenal, pointing to certain restrictions in it that were set to expire after several years, weak inspections of the state’s facilities, and several breaches in the agreement by Iran.
Kerry, who helped broker that deal, denied that he was giving advice to the Iranians on how to deal with the Trump administration’s rejection of it, saying that he was instead talking to Zarif about the dynamics in the Middle East.
Instead of trying to rally Democrats to the cause, they are working on foreign leaders because they are more likely to get Trump’s attention, according to one of the members.
Pompeo Slams Kerry Over Meetings
When asked about his predecessor’s meetings with Iran, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said he wouldn’t comment on the legality of what Kerry was doing, but called his meetings “unseemly and unprecedented.”“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,” Pompeo told reporters on Sept. 14. “It’s inconsistent with what foreign policy of the United States is, as directed by this president, and it is beyond inappropriate for him to be engaged in this.”
He said he saw Kerry at the Munich Security Conference in February with his “troika,” including former Secretary of Energy Ernest Moniz and lead Iran-deal negotiator, Wendy Sherman, and said he believed they met with their “troika counterparts” at the conference.
“I wasn’t in the meeting, but I am reasonably confident that he was not there in support of U.S. policy with respect to the Islamic Republic of Iran, who this week fired Katyusha rockets toward the United States embassy in Baghdad and took action against our consulate in Basra, [Iraq],” Pompeo said.
The day before Pompeo’s remarks, President Donald Trump accused Kerry of having “illegal” meetings with the Iranian regime and suggested he should be registered with the U.S. government as a foreign agent under the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA).
Lieberman, who doesn’t support the Iran deal, said he wasn’t sure if what Kerry was doing was illegal, but said he does find it very concerning.
“The only way I would say he should meet with any world leader today is if he was authorized by the current administration, and I would have said that if Condi Rice wanted to meet with somebody when Barack Obama was president,” he said.
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