Israel critic John Kerry addressing ADL
Israel critic John Kerry addressing ADLReuters

Former U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry fired back on Monday, after President Donald Trump blasted Kerry over reports that he had advised Iranian officials in an attempt to save the Iran nuclear deal.

Trump had earlier wrote on Twitter, "The United States does not need John Kerry’s possibly illegal Shadow Diplomacy on the very badly negotiated Iran Deal. He was the one that created this MESS in the first place!"

The President was responding to a report in the Boston Globe stating that Kerry met with Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammed Zarif two weeks ago in an attempt to save the Iran deal.

Responding to Trump, a spokesman for the former Secretary of State pushed back against his remarks.

"I think every American would want every voice possible urging Iran to remain in compliance with the nuclear agreement that prevented a war. Secretary Kerry stays in touch with his former counterparts around the world just like every previous Secretary of State," said the spokesman in a written statement quoted by CNN.

"Like America's closest allies, he believes it is important that the nuclear agreement, which took the world years to negotiate, remain effective as countries focus on stability in the region," added the statement.

Meanwhile, the White House said on Monday that Kerry's interactions with Iranian officials won't affect the Iran nuclear deal.

"I don't think it impacts it at all. The President spoke out about that pretty clearly, and I don't think that we would take advice from somebody who created what the President sees to be one of the worst deals ever made," said White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders. "I'm not sure why we would start listening to him now."

Kerry has repeatedly argued in favor of the Iran deal, which he helped broker while serving as Secretary of State.

Last week, he stated that the presentation of Iran's nuclear archive by Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, in which Netanyahu proved that Iran's leaders had lied about their nuclear ambitions, showed why the deal must remain in place.

"Every detail PM Netanyahu presented yesterday was every reason the world came together to apply years of sanctions and negotiate the Iran nuclear agreement - because the threat was real and had to be stopped. It's working!" Kerry wrote.

Last November, Kerry warned Congress that it would be "extraordinarily dangerous" for it to reject the 2015 Iran nuclear deal.

He warned in late October that Trump risked driving Iran towards nuclear proliferation if he cancels the deal.