Secretary of State John Kerry, then chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, speaks at a December 2009 hearing. Photo: U.S. Navy Petty Officer 1st Class Chad J. McNeeley.

JNS.org – U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry reportedly told U.S. senators to ignore Israeli thinking when it comes to Iran sanctions.

Describing Kerry’s testimony before the Senate Banking Committee on Wednesday, Kerry, a Senate aid told BuzzFeed that “every time anybody would say anything about ‘what would the Israelis say,’ they’d get cut off and Kerry would say, ‘You have to ignore what they’re telling you, stop listening to the Israelis on this.'”

Kerry’s closed-door briefing was “fairly anti-Israeli,” U.S. Sen. Mark Kirk (R-IL) told reporters.

“I was supposed to disbelieve everything the Israelis had just told me, and I think the Israelis probably have a pretty good intelligence service,” Kirk said.

U.S. Sen. Bob Corker (R-TN) described Kerry’s testimony as “an emotional appeal.”

“I have to tell you, I was very disappointed in the presentation,” Corker said.

Speaking to reporters before the briefing, Kerry said, “We now are negotiating [with Iran]. And the risk is that if Congress were to unilaterally move to raise sanctions, it could break faith in those negotiations, and actually stop them and break them apart.”