John Kerry.Photo: ERIC PIERMONT/AFP via Getty
At one point during the three-hour tape, which recorded Zarif in conversation for an oral history,The New York Timesdescribed that Zarif said Kerry told him Israel “attacked Iranian interests in Syria at least 200 times.”
The controversy led to widespread Republican criticism of Kerry, 77, for allegedly sharing an ally’s military operations with an adversarial country.
“I can tell you that this story and these allegations are unequivocally false,” Kerrytweetedon Monday. “This never happened - either when I was Secretary of State or since.”
Kerry served as secretary of state in the Obama administration, from early 2013 until 2017, and was recently appointed to the newly created position of special presidential envoy for climate under PresidentJoe Biden.
Kerry’s role as the U.S. climate envoy ranks him as a member of Biden’s National Security Council.
“I hope that’s not true. John Kerry needs to come forward and speak to the American people and explain to them why he was meeting with Zarif,” Mike Pompeo, who served as Donald Trump’s secretary of state,said on Fox News.
John Kerry.Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post via Getty
John Kerry.Alex Wong/Getty
U.S. State Department spokesperson Ned Pricetoldreporters on Monday that he “can’t speak to the authenticity [and] can’t speak to the accuracy of” the Zarif tape.
However, Price did say the Israli airstrikes Kerry allegedly discussed with Zarif “certainly was not secret'' among the world’s governments.
That didn’t satisfy Republicans.
Sen. Dan Sullivan, of Alaska, accused Kerry of “treason” in aninterviewwithPolitico. Speaking on the Senate floor, Sullivan, 56, said Kerry “needs to go.”
Wisconsin Rep. Mike Gallagher toldPoliticohe thought it was “unfathomable” Kerry “would leak intelligence to the world’s leading sponsors of terrorism at the expense of one of our staunchest allies.”
But not all conservatives admonished Kerry over the reported claims.
South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham said “I don’t know if we should trust that tape or not” and encouraged others to be cautious and to “wait and see how authentic this is.”
And Utah Sen. Mitt Romney called the allegation “very troubling” but ultimately told reporters “this is something that has to be evaluated and looked into.”
source: people.com
