John Kerry agrees with Iran’s Zarif: We declared 'economic war'
The former US presidential candidate, now a foreign policy chief, said that the US had been concerned about Iran’s support for Hezbollah and its missile program.
By SETH J. FRANTZMANFormer United States Secretary of State John Kerry (L) meets with Mohammad Javad Zarif, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Iran, at the United Nations in New York, September 26, 2015.(photo credit: REUTERS/STEPHANIE KEITH)
In comments on CBS’s Face the Nation, former US Secretary of State John Kerry, who pushed for the Iran Deal during his time in office, said the US had declared “economic war” on Iran. His comments appeared to channel those of Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif, who wrote on September 18 that the US was escalating “economic war on Iranians.”Kerry said it was obvious that Iran, in “one way or the other, was behind the attack that took place,” in Saudi Arabia on September 14. He seemed to explain Iran’s foreign policy for Tehran, noting that Iran needs “plausible deniability.”Kerry spoke about his years pushing for the Iran deal, claiming that leaders in the Middle East had pushed the US to go to war with Iran.“We had a prime minister of Israel come to America and ask for a green light to bomb, so we were averting war,” Kerry said.The former US presidential candidate, now a foreign policy chief, said that Washington had been concerned about Tehran’s support for Hezbollah and its missile program. He said diplomacy was needed now to avoid more conflicts.Iran’s foreign minister was also on the same show, which aired September 22. He said that Iran did not play a role in the attack and blamed Israel for “attacking parts of the Iraqi military,” referring to mysterious air strikes on Iranian-backed paramilitaries in Iraq.
