Kerry: US departure from Iran deal risks ‘dragging the world back to the brink we faced a few years ago’

Former Secretary of State John Kerry ripped President Trump’s decision to pull the U.S. from the Iran nuclear deal on Tuesday, saying the move risks “dragging the world back to the brink” the U.S. faced before the deal was made.

“Today’s announcement weakens our security, breaks America’s word, isolates us from our European allies, puts Israel at greater risk, empowers Iran’s hardliners, and reduces our global leverage to address Tehran’s misbehavior while damaging the ability of future administrations to make international agreements,” Kerry said in a statement. 

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“Instead of building unprecedented nonproliferation verification measures, this decision risks throwing them away and dragging the world to the brink we faced a few years ago,” he continued.

Kerry later warned that Trump had created a crisis during an interview on MSNBC.

“What the president has done by withdrawing unilaterally is place the United States in breach of this agreement. He has literally taken a situation where there was no crisis and created crisis by transferring to Iran sanctions that were meant with respect to the nuclear agreement itself,” he told MSNBC’s Nicole Wallace on “Deadline: White House.”

“So the fact is that what the president has done is unilaterally broken a multilateral agreement that was working to prevent Iran from having a nuclear weapon. And in effect, you know it’s a strange diplomacy when you do the ultimatums before you’ve actually done the diplomacy,” he said. 

Kerry’s statements come on the heels of Trump’s announcement that the U.S. would leave the multination agreement, which was negotiated in part by Kerry and other Obama administration officials.

The former secretary of State has defended the deal in the face of reports Trump would pull the U.S. out of it.

The Boston Globe reported last week that Kerry met with Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif and French President Emmanuel Macron to discuss the multination deal. 

The president slammed Kerry in a tweet on Tuesday, suggesting he was interfering in foreign policy.

John Kerry can’t get over the fact that he had his chance and blew it! Stay away from negotiations John, you are hurting your country!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 8, 2018

 Updated at 5:43 p.m.