Secretary of State John F. Kerry on Tuesday defended the Obama administration’s foreign policy legacy, including the nuclear deal with Iran.

In a speech to the Women’s Foreign Policy Group, Kerry seemed to make a direct appeal to President-elect Donald Trump not to abandon international agreements or undermine alliances.

He defended the Iran nuclear deal, saying “Now, I know that some people have said that Iran is such a huge threat we shouldn’t even have attempted to do that — that we should have passed up the best chance we had for the international community to come together and block each and every one of Iran’s pathways to a nuclear weapon,” he said. “To me, that argument just doesn’t compute.”

Kerry did not mention Trump by name but said democracy is measured not by a particular vote, but by “whether we have the maturity to place the needs of the country above partisan concerns.”

Trump has vowed to dismantle or undercut much of what Kerry sees as the administration’s diplomatic achievements, including the Iran nuclear deal, the rapprochement with Cuba, the Paris agreement on climate change and the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal.

“It’s little wonder that some Americans want to turn inward and search for ways to fence off our own safety and prosperity from that of the international community,” Kerry said, in a reference to international trade deals. “No politician, no prime minister, no president can by edict or parliamentary decree shut off globalization. Because people want it. It is folly to think we can build a brighter future by hiding from the real world or by severing our connections to it.”

SP/PA