TEHRAN – Former U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry has said that President Donald Trump’s withdrawal from the 2015 Iran nuclear deal was a very “dangerous” and “ill-advised” move which works against American interests.

In an interview with the CNN correspondent Fareed Zakaria, Kerry said Trump’s move is not based on any broad strategy that is drawing other countries to the table to be supportive of it.

Rather, he said, “I think it represents a campaign promise made by the president in the heat of a campaign, which he followed up on but which has no basis in achieving the goals that the president has set out, if there are goals.”

On May 8, Donald Trump withdrew Washington from the nuclear pact, officially called the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), and ordered sanctions against Iran. The first batch of sanctions was snapped back on August 6. The second batch will be restored on November 4.

Criticizing the U.S. president’s anti-JCPOA rhetoric, Kerry said, “Merely saying this agreement is the worst agreement actually doesn’t make it the worst agreement.”

“It is, in fact, the single strongest, single most accountable, single most transparent nuclear agreement anywhere in the world. What the president has done is simply said, I’m going to get out,” he stated.

“And whatever dangers might have existed way down the road if they were trying to break out or something different were happening, which we would have known and had every military option available to us way down the road or then or now, he suddenly rushed to making the way down the road be now, tomorrow,” said Kerry, who led the American team in nuclear negotiations with Iran.

MH/PA