Iran’s Foreign Minister Jawad Zarif met with several current Biden administration officials several years ago to “undermine” the behavior of former President Trump of the country, a report claims.
After the meeting between Zarif and Robert Mali, the Special Envoy for Iran Policy in 2019, Trump removed the US from Obama’s Iran nuclear deal. The washington times Sunday reported.
Former Secretary of State John Kerry also met Zarif in the first few years of Trump’s presidency – which he publicly acknowledged. The report states that Obama Secretary of Energy Ernest Moniz did it.
While the exact details of this were discussed at the meetings were not clear, a former US official told the newspaper that Zarif’s goal was “to devise a political strategy to weaken the Trump administration.”
The source said that Zarif wanted to garner support for the Iran nuclear deal – or a similar agreement, if the next president of the US would have been a Democrat.
Mali, Kerry and Moniz helped negotiate the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, which halted the country’s nuclear program in exchange for relief from sanctions.
Trump withdrew from the agreement in 2018 and re-enforced economic sanctions on Tehran.
Sources told The Times that Merle, in his meeting with Zarif, urged Iranian officials to remain tight-lipped until 2021, when there was hope that the Democratic administration could reinstate the deal.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken said last week that the US is ready to resume negotiations with the two countries about restarting the agreement with Iran.
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