Iranian foreign minister Javad Zarif claimed he did not know that Israel was behind 200 military airstrikes in Iran until secretary of state John Kerry tipped him off, a new translation of a leaked audiotape reveals.
The New York Times buried the revelation of Kerry’s treasonous behavior deep in a story about the leaked audiotape last week.
Kerry is now the Biden administration’s United States Special Presidential Envoy for Climate.
Amid calls for him to resign or be fired, the corporate media and State Department officials stepped up to the plate to defend Kerry, saying Zarif had already heard about Israel’s actions from the media before Kerry blabbed about it. At the same time, Kerry claimed (unconvincingly) that none of it was true.
I can tell you that this story and these allegations are unequivocally false. This never happened – either when I was Secretary of State or since. https://t.co/BTOdFE1khW
— John Kerry (@JohnKerry) April 26, 2021
On Thursday, the Washington Free Beacon released the results of their independent translation of the audiotape. The translation shows that Zarif indicated that he had no prior knowledge of the Israeli airstrikes before Kerry told him.
“Kerry told me that Israel had launched 200 airstrikes against you [Iran],” said Zarif. “You didn’t know?” asked his interviewer. “No, no,” he replied.
These new details contradict top State Department officials, who have repeatedly said the information was already in the public domain and not classified.
“If you go back and look at press reporting from the time, this certainly was not secret, and governments that were involved were speaking to this publicly on the record,” State Department spokesman Ned Price said on Monday during a press briefing.
The following day, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the strikes “were all reported in the press at the time, so it is utter nonsense.” He also accused Republicans of trying to “play politics with this.”
The bombshell revelation that Kerry sold out the Israeli military has spurred Republicans to call for him to step down from his post as the Biden administration’s jet-setting climate envoy.
Sen. Ted Cruz (R., Texas), who is leading the effort to pressure Kerry into resigning, said, “If this tape is verified, it would signal catastrophic and disqualifying recklessness by Envoy Kerry to Foreign Minister Zarif that endangered the safety of Americans and our allies.”
“John Kerry must resign immediately,” Rep. Jim Banks (R., Ind.), a member of the House Armed Services Committee, told the Free Beacon earlier this week. “The investigation should be retrospective.”
Reps. Lee Zeldin (R., N.Y.), Andy Barr (R., Ky.), and Ann Wagner (R., Mo.), all members of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, wrote to the State Department’s inspector general on Wednesday to demand an investigation into Kerry.
“The State Department must investigate the massively alarming allegations that John Kerry leaked information to Iran on covert Israeli military operations. If it’s proven that Kerry actively undermined one of America’s staunchest allies, he needs to resign from the Biden administration immediately and have his security clearance revoked,” Zeldin said in a statement.
Former Sec. of State Mike Pompeo also blasted Kerry, telling Fox News that Biden’s Climate Envoy has some explaining to do.
“Secretary Kerry needs to explain why it is the case that he was sharing with the foreign minister of an American adversary—an adversary that has killed Americans—why he was sharing information about our ally’s operations in the region,” Pompeo said.
“It’s also clear from that tape that Secretary Kerry had multiple conversations, conversations that were likely attempting to undermine the Trump administration was trying to do during its four years to support Middle East peace, Pompeo said, adding that “Iran remains the world’s largest state sponsor of terror.”
During the Trump years, Pompeo tore into Kerry for undermining United States foreign policy in his meetings with Iranian leaders.