John Kerry denies setting up a back-channel with Iran

 John Kerry might be feeling a little bit of heat after comments he made back in May of last year which he reaffirmed as late as last September where he admitted to conducting shadow diplomacy with Iran in order to save his Iran nuclear deal. In case you have not heard this story here is what he said back then:

Former Secretary of State John Kerry disclosed that he has been conducting rogue diplomacy with top Iranian officials to salvage the landmark nuclear deal and push the Islamic Republic to negotiate its contested missile program, according to recent remarks.

Kerry, in an interview with radio host Hugh Hewitt to promote his new book, said that he has met with Iranian Former Minister Javad Zarif—the former secretary’s onetime negotiating partner—three or four times in recent months behind the Trump administration’s back.

“I think I’ve seen him three or four times,” Kerry said, adding that he has been conducting sensitive diplomacy without the current administration’s authorization. Kerry said he has criticized the current administration in these discussions, chiding it for not pursuing negotiations from Iran, despite the country’s fevered rhetoric about the U.S. president.

  This led to talk about a possible LOGAN Act violation and Marco Rubio asked Jeff Sessions to look into it, but of course we know that the do-nothing Attorney General did nothing. But recently the President has mentioned the possibility of having William Barr investigate these allegations and this might have John Kerry a little worried as I alluded to above because now the former Secretary of State seems to be changing his tune.

  Here is what he said in a recent interview:

Well,I haven’t talked to the Iranians substantively about any issue. I’ve only talked with one Iranian once between the decision that was made to pull out. I saw the foreign minister briefly for a few minutes at the Munich Security Conference. But I have not said a word, substantively, to what they ought to do or not do, publically like this, since the decision was made to pull out of the Iran nuclear deal. From that forward, this is a public issue, and I don’t engage in any diplomacy.

No, I haven’t had any back-channel on that issue since the decision was made to move out. And before that, it was not a back-channel. I met publicly, as the New York Times editorial board did, as members of Congress did, as senators did and as other secretaries of state have done throughout history.

  It is never a good sign when one’s story starts to change and we know about John Kerry’s personal family ties to Iran. We can only hope William Barr will do his job and look into this.

malo periculosam libertatem quam quietum servitium