The Jerusalem Post reports today that Secretary of State John Kerry, who is in Vienna for a final push to reach a permanent nuclear deal with Iran, will ask Iran’s Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif to have his country stop sending rockets to Hamas.

An administration source was quoted:

“Iran has a longstanding record of supplying weapons, rockets, to various terror groups in Gaza, including Hamas,” one senior Obama administration official said from Vienna. “Those rockets are being used to fire at civilian areas, and Iran has a responsibility to cease and desist from continuing to supply weapons in this conflict.”

Israel launched Operation Protective Edge five days ago to eliminate those stockpiles and their facilitators, members of Hamas and other Islamist groups that wish to destroy the Jewish state.

“Any opportunity that we get to communicate that message to them, we will take,” the administration official added.

A recent United Nations report cited by the Wall Street Journal cited “Iran’s critical ‘role in fueling Middle East terror.’” Kerry’s intent to challenge Zarif on this point implicitly shows that it is increasingly difficult to overlook Iran’s role as an international sponsor of terror in the context of the nuclear negotiations.

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