Over this weekend, the Munich Security Conference took place, and saw a lot of comments by high profile officials from around the world. The event also led to some chances for officials to meet, including a very unusual meeting.
In a story first broken by the Federalist, Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT) led a delegation, which also included Sens. Robert Menendez (D-NJ) and Chris Van Hollum (D-MD), as well as former Secretary of State John Kerry, to hold a secretive meeting with Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif.
The US State Department denied knowledge of any such meeting, though Murphy confirmed it, saying he believes the US must talk to its enemies. This is still a huge deal, not the least of which because it puts current opposition senators who are at odds with President Trump on the situation in Iran in a room with Iran’s top diplomat.
This is almost certain to be used by the Trump Administration to accuse the Democrats of trying to undercut his foreign policy with secret meetings, and this is likely to happen whether or not the meeting actually happened. Trump was already accusing Kerry of regular meetings of this sort, suggesting it was illegal.
There remains much that’s still unknown about this meeting, most importantly what they talked about. No hints were given in the Federalist report, which instead tried to draw similarities between the meeting and pre-inauguration Trump Administration meetings with Russia. Murphy did not go into detail in early reports, and the administration similarly did not offer any indication they knew anything beyond that a meeting had taken place.
Most early coverage of the report used it to try to portray Sen. Murphy negatively. The Union Journal was quick to present this secret meeting as involving “Pro-Iranian Regime US Senator” Murphy, even while Murphy is presenting Iran as an adversary.
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo was deeply critical of the meeting, saying it might undercut US policies and sanctions against Iran and Zarif.
It seems the party that is out of power likes to meet with the Iranians around election time. Just like Cheney did back during the hostage crisis to you know stretch that out a little bit longer.
You’re thinking of William Casey and no, it never happened.
Don’t these democrats know what happened to , Manning and Julian Assange . The US government has declared everything our government does as a classified top secret . The Us government could arrest these guys and give them 150 year prison sentences like they want to give Assange for showing a picture .
Here, I have to digress. Nothing will happen to Sen. Murphy and his delegation. They were legally in Munich, conversing with many other foreign officials besides Iranian FM Javad Zarif. Yes, these Democrats know what happened to Chelsea Manning and Julian Assange (both must be set free), but they’re only mingling with other officials – Zarif being just one.
Not everything the US Govt does is classified top secret. If so, then why does DJT use Twitter to announce a number of so-called top secret actions? This makes no sense whatsoever.
Can you see what an uproar arresting Sen. Murphy and his delegation and giving them 150 year sentences would create? The backlash would be so huge that the Govt would have no choice but to release them and apologize to them for this mistake.
Anyone in Congress has a right to visit other govt officials but turn about is fair play, release any transcripts or meeting notes just like Trump released the Zelensky phone call record.
People citing the Logan Act are zealots. It would only be a violation if they misrepresented their authority as in, ‘I’ll give you Guam if you release hostages’.
Or, “I’ll let you have what congress has given you if you do me a personal favor”…
Not to worry. Trump has been holding secret meetings with Rouhani for some time now and another “deal of the century” should be forthcoming. 🙂
seems to have conveniently forgotten:
https://viableopposition.blogspot.com/2019/06/irans-forgotten-history-why-iran-must.html
Iran knows that it stands alone when it comes to protecting itself from war.
Need a Special Prosecutor to investigate the Senator’s colluding with Iran…..
Fine, but no witnesses allowed….
The Iranians aren’t our enemies.. We’re theirs.
Noone is an enemy to the US like the US is an enemy of the US.
How about a little cooperation instead of always the opposite, maybe employ a good cop, bad cop strategy when dealing with Iran. Most of all, lets make peace, not just in the Middle East but every where, a national goal and stop with all the threats, all it does is make people mad.
Don’t you know, Senator Murphy, that Pompeo’s secret plan is to provoke the Iranians into fighting that “transformative, apocalyptic” (Bannon’s words) conflict that the Zionists and Likudnik gangsters who surround Mafia Don have been craving since he first came into office? That’s why they dumped the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA). That’s why they’re building more “usable” nukes. That’s why they assassinated Soleimani.
The Dems are just supposed to sit around and pretend they want peace while Pompeo and company start WWIII with no congressional input whatsoever. Don’t mess up the plan by actually talking to the enemy!
Menendez and Van Hollen are uber-Zios.
But, they probably don’t have hard-ons for Armageddon like Pompeo and Pence.
This is rich. Trump is accusing Sen. Chris Murphy of doing the very same thing he had Gen. Michael Flynn do to undercut Obama’s foreign policy at the U.N.
This type of meeting isn’t a big deal. It’s to keep Iran informed unofficially what’s coming down the pipeline. DJT can’t do it, because it wouldn’t make much sense.
The party out of power just likes to meet with the Iranians during election time for political gain. Murphy and these guys are uber zionists.
Menendez surely is one of the most warlike Senators.