Former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Tuesday night that John Kerry "has an awful lot of explaining to do" regarding accusations he told Iran about Israeli military operations while serving as former President Barack Obama’s secretary of state.
Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif claimed in a leaked audiotape that Kerry revealed Israel had conducted more than 200 operations against Iranian targets.
Kerry, currently President Joe Biden's climate czar, also reportedly met with Zarif as a private citizen after leaving office – something that has raised concerns about what he might have disclosed to the foreign minister and other Iranian officials.
"Looks like from this reporting it's confirmed what we already believed, which is when I was briefing President [Donald] Trump, Kerry was briefing Zarif on intelligence that related to Israeli operations," Pompeo said on Fox News.
"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."
Pompeo then told "Hannity" host Sean Hannity that Kerry previously admitted to being in contact with Zarif during the Trump administration.
"We believe he was absolutely telling the Iranians 'hang on, this pressure campaign; the power that is being exerted by America against you, it'll be over, [Biden] will win this election, it'll be 4 years you can hang in there, don't for a minute negotiate with the Trump team,'" Pompeo said. "So he has an awful lot of explaining to do."
Top Republicans such as Sen. Mitt Romney, R-Utah, and Daniel Sullivan, R-Alaska, have condemned Kerry following the reports. Sullivan even called for the climate czar to resign from the Biden administration.
"If true, this revelation is shocking, and a betrayal of one of our most crucial allies in the world," Sullivan said, according to Must Read Alaska.
"It's unclear why John Kerry would relay such information to the leaders of the largest sponsored terrorism in the world. The secret information was given to one of America’s most sworn enemies … undermining the interests of one of our most important allies, the state of Israel. If this is true, John Kerry needs to go."
As secretary of state, Kerry was a chief architect of the Iran nuclear deal.
"Remember the architect of this idiotic [Iran nuclear] deal has been trying to appease Iran for over a decade all while vilifying our top ally in the Middle East, Israel at every turn and as one article in The New York Post entitled 'John Kerry is skirting the line of treason with Iran,'" Hannity said.
In 1971, Vietnam War veteran Kerry testified before the U.S. Senate about alleged war crimes committed by his fellow service members. He even compared the supposed violators to 13th Century Mongol emperor Genghis Khan, Hannity noted.
It was pointed out during the show that Democrats and the mainstream media denigrated retired Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn for communicating with a Russian diplomat before Trump was inaugurated – a charge similar to that being alleged of Kerry.
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