Kerry Disagrees with Obama Statement that Iran Should Be Regional Power

MENENDEZ: “Do you believe that Iran will be and should be a regional power?”

KERRY: “Do I believe that they should be in the future or something?”

MENENDEZ: “Will be and should be a regional power?”

KERRY: “Well, I think to some degree there's an element of power in what they're doing now. I don't know about the will be. But, do I want them to be? Not in the way that they behaved today. No.”

MENENDEZ: “I’m glad to hear that because, you know, the president in the column with Tom Friedman said that the truth of the matter is that Iran will be and should be a regional power. But that's a pretty bold statement about a country that is the largest state sponsor of terrorism in the world as defined by our government. It would have to be a dramatically different Iran to have any aspirations (indecipherable) -- be a regional power.”

KERRY: “And the president knows that.”