John Kerry Is Reportedly Trying To Salvage the Iran Deal By Secretly Meeting With World Leaders

Former Secretary of State John Kerry is attempting to save his signature Iran Nuclear Deal as yet another deadline looms for the Trump administration on whether the U.S. will pull out of the agreement.

According to a new report from The Boston Globe, Kerry has met with several foreign diplomats over the past several weeks in months in order to maintain support over the nuclear deal among allies.

Two weeks ago, Kerry met with Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif at the United Nations in New York City about preserving the international pact. According to a source, this is the second time Kerry has met with Zarif in the past two months.

Last month, Kerry met with German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier and has spoken with top European Union official Federica Mogherini. The source also says Kerry had met with French President Emmanuel Macron in New York and Paris to discuss the deal. Macron made clear during his recent visit to the United States that he hopes President Trump will not pull out.

All of this is an attempt to “apply pressure on the Trump administration from the outside.”

“It is unusual for a former secretary of state to engage in foreign policy like this, as an actual diplomat and quasi-negotiator,” said foreign policy expert Michael O’Hanlon of the Brookings Institution. “Of course, former secretaries of state often remain quite engaged with foreign leaders, as they should, but it’s rarely so issue-specific, especially when they have just left office.”

Kerry declined to comment on the report.

President Trump knocked Kerry during a speech at the NRA Convention today over the Iran Nuclear Deal as well as his bicycle accident he had while negotiating the 2015 deal. Ahead of the May 12 deadline, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu presented “conclusive proof” that Iran lied going into the deal in an attempt to sway Trump’s decision in pulling out of the agreement.

[photo via Getty Images]