Kerry warns Trump against striking Iran again: “A grave mistake that will keep it out of the negotiations”

Former US Secretary of State John Kerry warned that launching new military strikes on Tehran after the US midterm elections would be a grave mistake, and could push the Iranians away from negotiations rather than returning to them.

Kerry said, in a virtual interview with CNN anchor Christiane Amanpour, as part of the CNN Global Perspectives event from the Qatari capital, Doha: “Unfortunately, things have become so unpredictable that almost anything could happen. I think it would be a grave mistake to start the post-election period with a military attack. This will not impress the Iranians, and will not push them to sit at the negotiating table more seriously. On the contrary, it will turn them away.”

Kerry criticized US President Donald Trump's decision to cancel the nuclear agreement that the Obama administration and other countries negotiated with Iran in 2015, and Kerry was one of the participants in reaching it, saying: “If President Trump really wanted to make a change and reach a better agreement, why did he not put something on the table? Why did he not present an actual proposal that would allow the Iranians to respond to it or enter into a new round of negotiations?”

"Instead, he has rushed toward war, particularly in recent months, based on a set of faulty assumptions that have made life more expensive and dangerous for people around the world."

Kerry noted that Trump “put himself in a very weak negotiating position,” however, he expressed his belief that the United States could still “return to a formula that is very close to the agreement that existed.”

He said: "I do not think it will be easy to demand more than what has already been agreed upon, after Iran was bombed, the killing of the (former Iranian leader Ali Khamenei) and his wife... and the many unrest the region witnessed, especially since the world considered the previous agreement sufficient."

"Maybe partial gains can be made here or there, and I really hope that is possible," he added.

“You cannot erase the knowledge of how to make a bomb through bombing,” Kerry continued.

He added: "I think the key here lies in engaging in real diplomacy. Real diplomacy may take multiple paths at the same time; one public, the other very secret, with careful coordination between them."