Former Secretary of State John Kerry has admitted that he has met with Iran's Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif in recent months in a bid to save the 2015 nuclear deal with Tehran, reported the Townhall.

"I think I've seen him three or four times," Kerry said in an interview with Hugh Hewitt on Salem Radio in New York on Wednesday September 12, the radio anchor's website reported.

Kerry met with Zarif while President Donald Trump took the United States out of the nuclear deal in May.

However, Kerry made it clear in the interview that his intention was not to "coach" Iran on how to manage Trump's rejection of the deal.

"What I have done is tried to elicit from him what Iran might be willing to do in order to change the dynamic in the Middle East for the better," Kerry explained.

Meanwhile, he shared his view that "the U.S., and the world at large, would be much better off if we had stayed in the agreement," saying the world would be "safer" with the nuclear deal with Tehran, also known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action IJCPOA).