President Trump blasted former Secretary of State John Kerry Monday for what he called “possibly illegal Shadow Diplomacy” with officials from Iran and Europe in a bid to salvage the 2015 nuclear deal. The president has repeatedly hit Kerry for his supposedly poor negotiating skills, but turned up the criticism following reports that Kerry is trying to save the deal -- as the Trump administration nears a May 12 deadline to decide whether to recertify the pact with Tehran.
“The United States does not need John Kerry’s possibly illegal Shadow Diplomacy on the very badly negotiated Iran Deal. He was the one that created this MESS in the first place!” Trump tweeted Monday.
Trump’s comments come on the heels of aBoston Globe report last week which said that Kerry met Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif in recent months to strategize in a bid to preserve the deal, as part of what the Globe called an “aggressive yet stealthy” mission to put pressure on the Trump administration to keep it in some form.
Ahead of the May 12 deadline, Kerry has reportedly ramped up other meetings, speaking with German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier, who was foreign minister of Germany when the deal was negotiated; French President Emmanuel Macron; and European Union foreign affairs chief Federica Mogherini.
