Kerry defends recent meetings with Iranians about nuclear deal

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region — US President Donald Trump targeted former Secretary of State John Kerry for meetings about the nuclear accord with Iranian FM Javad Zarif after US former President Barack Obama's top diplomat had left office.

"John Kerry had illegal meetings with the very hostile Iranian Regime which can only serve to undercut our great work to the detriment of the American people," Trump tweeted late Thursday.

Kerry negotiated the Iran nuclear deal that went into effect in 2015 and the Trump subsequently withdrew from in May 2017.

"He told them to wait out the Trump Administration!" Trump tweeted, "BAD!"

Current US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is seen as an opponent to Iranian influence and has supported the withdrawal from the nuclear deal. 

"So I’ll leave the legal determinations to others. But what Secretary Kerry has done is unseemly and unprecedented," Pompeo told reporters on Friday.

Pompeo, a Republican, and Kerry, a Democrat, don't see eye-to-eye and the United States will hold midterm congressional elections in November.

"He was talking to them. He was telling them to wait out this administration," said Pompeo. 

"It’s inconsistent with what foreign policy of the United States is, as directed by this President, and it is beyond inappropriate for him to be engaged in this," he added.

Kerry acknowledged on radio with Fox News that he met with Zarif "three or four times" since his term ended in January 2017.

"What I have done is tried to elicit from him what Iran might be willing to do in order to change the dynamic in the Middle East for the better," said Kerry.

Kerry then formally denied that he offered the Iranians information on how to deal with Trump.

"Secretary Kerry stays in touch with his former counterparts around the world just like every previous Secretary of State," a spokesman for Kerry stated.

"I've been very blunt to Foreign Minister Zarif, and told him look, you guys need to recognize that the world does not appreciate what's happening with missiles, what's happening with Hezbollah, what's happening with Yemen," he added.

Trump’s withdrawal from the Iran nuclear deal was met with great dissatisfaction from former President Obama who has described the accord as the culmination of decades of negotiations and the best way to prevent Tehran from achieving nuclear weapons.