The chief U.S. negotiator in the Iran nuclear talks will leave the State Department shortly after the talks end, the New York Times said on Wednesday.
Wendy Sherman, the State Department’s under secretary for political affairs, is the fourth-ranking State Department official. She’s a key member of Secretary of State John Kerry’s team.
“It’s been two long years,” the Times quoted Sherman as saying, referring to the protracted and intensely complex discussions that began with secret talks with the clerical regime in Iran.
Secretary of State John Kerry said in a statement to CNN: “Wendy has been an absolutely critical member of my team, most notably in her work spearheading the nuclear negotiations with Iran, but on nearly every important issue that has crossed my desk.”
Sherman has not publicly said why she is leaving the State Department.
On Saturday, US Secretary of State John Kerry will once again meet the Iranian regime’s foreign minister Mohamad Javad Zarif in Geneva, after weeks of behind-the-scenes technical discussions in Vienna on Tehran’s nuclear program.
Kerry and his team will now return to Europe for what is expected to be a final series of meetings with Zarif as the clock ticks down to June 30 self-imposed deadline for the talks.
