Was John Kerry working for the benefit of the United States when he was Secretary of State under President Barack Obama? As Liberty Nation has reported, keeping the confidences of U.S. ally and only true democracy in the Middle East, Israel, apparently was not part of his job description. Liberty Nation explained:
“Fox News reporter Evie Fordham reported that in a leaked audio obtained by The New York Times, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif asserted that Kerry, ‘when he was serving as Secretary of State during the Obama administration, informed him of more than 200 Israeli operations in Syria.'”
U.K.’s Daily Mail.com noted that Kerry denied allegations that he told Zarif “Israel had launched more than 200 attacks on Iranian forces in Syria.” Nonetheless, former Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley suggested that there’s a ring of truth to the report.
Haley tweeted regarding the news: “This is disgusting on so many levels. Biden and Kerry have to answer for why Kerry would be tipping off Iran, the number one sponsor of terror, while stabbing one of our greatest partners, Israel, in the back.”
Geoff Earle of the Daily Mail.com news service reported on Kerry’s defense: “‘I can tell you that this story and these allegations are unequivocally false.’ Kerry, who is currently President Biden’s special envoy on climate change, tweeted … ‘This never happened — either when I was Secretary of State or since.'”
According to Kaelan Deese of the Washington Examiner, State Department spokesman Ned Price addressed the allegations by saying, “If you go back and look at press reporting from the time, this certainly was not secret, and governments that were involved were speaking to this publicly, on the record.”
In truth, not all the governments involved spoke about it openly, and one, in particular, did not even know. Times of Israel staff writers wrote the audiotape reveals that, when discussing sharing information within the Iranian government, “Zarif said that he was often kept in the dark about security matters.” He lamented with a question: “Kerry has to tell me that Israel has attacked you 200 times in Syria?” The interviewer then asked Zarif twice, “You didn’t know?” And “Zarif responded, ‘no, no’ on both occasions.”
Jack Keene, retired four-star U.S. Army general and frequent contributor to Fox News, took a more cynical view of the Kerry story. He told Fox News’ Maria Bartiromo on Mornings With Maria:
“But are we really surprised here? This is the same John Kerry who, during the Trump administration, when he was out of office, was cozying up to the Iranians during that time and undermining U.S. policy. In other words, he was telling the Iranians, and this is what we got from the Department of State and the Secretary of State, that this was actually happening. He was telling the Iranians not to follow or go along with the Trump administration; wait it out and a new administration, obviously a Democratic one, would come in and be more friendly to you.”
If the stories on Kerry colluding with the Iranians are proved true, Keene added, “He would be asked to step down. I don’t see how the administration could have anybody serving them, in any capacity whatsoever, who committed such an egregious violation.”
Republicans are not amused by the Kerry allegations nor are they waiting for the Biden administration to ask Kerry to resign. Deese, of The Washington Examiner, quoted Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) saying if the tapes are verified, it “would signal catastrophic and disqualifying recklessness by Envoy Kerry.” More about Cruz’ reaction:
“‘And it would be consistent with his long pattern of empowering Iran’s regime,’ Cruz continued. ‘Kerry poured hundreds of billions of dollars into the Ayatollah’s terrorist bank accounts, was a close confidant with Zarif during the Obama administration, and was caught repeatedly meeting with him during the Trump administration (notwithstanding the Logan Act) — and has never publicly accounted for what they discussed.'”
Politico wrote that Republican “rising star” Representative Mike Gallagher (R-WI) said, “It’s unfathomable that any U.S. diplomat, past or present, would leak intelligence to the world’s leading sponsors of terrorism at the expense of one of our staunchest allies.”
What started as an interesting audio snippet by the Iranian foreign minister doing an oral history of his time in office has turned into a credibility debacle for the administration. As Senator Todd Young (R-IN), member of the Foreign Relations Committee, explained in Politico, “You don’t want your climate envoy undermining your closest ally in the region.”
Kerry’s relationship with the Iranian government while in office and as a private citizen is worthy of serious investigation in light of the Zarif revelations. Kerry must come clean or resign, or both.
The views expressed are those of the author and not of any other affiliation.
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