Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif met with several officials in the current Biden government several years ago to “undermine” former President Trump’s negotiations with the country, a report says.
One of the meetings between Zarif and Robert Malley, now the special envoy for Iran’s politics, took place in 2019 after Trump pulled the U.S. out of the Obama-era nuclear deal with Iran, the Washington Times reported on Sunday.
Former Secretary of State John Kerry also met with Zarif in the early years of Trump’s presidency – which he publicly acknowledged. And so did Obama’s energy secretary, Ernest Moniz, the report said.
Although the exact details of what was discussed at the meetings were unclear, a former senior US official told the newspaper that Zarif’s goal was “to devise a political strategy to undermine the Trump administration”.
The source added that Zarif is seeking to regain support for the nuclear deal with Iran – or a similar deal if the next US president is a Democrat.
Malley, Kerry and Moniz helped negotiate the 2015 nuclear deal with Iran, which restricted the country’s nuclear program in exchange for sanctions.
Trump withdrew from the deal in 2018 and imposed economic sanctions on Tehran.
Sources told The Times that Malley, in his meeting with Zarif, probably urged Iranian officials to stand firm until 2021, when a Democratic government was expected to restore the deal.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken said last week that the United States is prepared to restart negotiations with Iran over the return of the two nations to the agreement.