Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is blasting Democrats for secretly meeting with Iran’s foreign minister.
His comments came after The Federalist reported that Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., and other senators secretly met with Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif during the Munich Security Conference last week. The Federalist attributed the information to a source.
"This guy is designated by the United States," Pompeo said, referring to Zarif's addition to official U.S. terrorism lists.
"He's the foreign minister for a country that shot down an airliner and has yet to turn over the black boxes. This is the foreign minister of a country that killed an American on December 27. This is the foreign minister of a country that is the world's largest state sponsor of terror and the world's largest sponsor of anti-Semitism.
"If they met. I don't know what they said. I hope they were reinforcing America's foreign policy, not their own."
Pompeo's remarks were detailed in a report by The Washington Free Beacon.
The Beacon noted no meeting was officially sanctioned by the U.S. It said State Department officials have made it clear they had no role in facilitating the meeting.
Murphy confirmed, in a series of tweets Tuesday, that he met with Zarif.
He wrote: “I met w[ith] the Iranian Foreign Minister in Munich. It’s dangerous not to talk to adversaries, esp amidst a cycle of escalation.
“I urged him to control any Iranian proxies in Iraq who might attack U.S. forces and allies there. Second, I pressed him to release American citizens being unlawfully detained in Iran. Third, I pushed him to end the Houthi blockage of humanitarian aid in Yemen.
“Congress is a co-equal branch to the executive. We set foreign policy too. Many of us have met w Zarif over the years, under Obama and Trump. So though no one in Congress can negotiate with Zarif or carry official U.S. government messages, there is value in having a dialogue.
“I wish President Trump would see that value too. Because our current policy of blind, non-strategic escalation is just making Iran more powerful and menacing and making America weaker and less secure."
Jeffrey Rodack ✉
Jeffrey Rodack, who has nearly a half century in news as a senior editor and city editor for national and local publications, has covered politics for Newsmax for nearly seven years.
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