Secretary of State John Kerry was the target of harsh criticism from Republicans on Dec. 21, after the Democrat told Iranian officials the Obama administration could help the Islamic Republic to circumvent new visa restrictions recently passed by Congress.

House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Ed Royce, a Republican from California, charged that Kerry's comments were yet another example of what he sees as the administration's failed policy toward Tehran and its nuclear program, Fox News reported.

"Instead of bending over backwards to try to placate the Iranian regime," Royce said, "the White House needs to be holding it accountable for its recent missile tests, its continued support for terrorism, and its wrongful imprisonment of Americans."

House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, another California Republican, suggested on Dec. 21 that Kerry was proposing a "blanket" waiver to accommodate the Iranian regime, which had complained the new visa rules violated the terms of the nuclear agreement recently reached with the United States and other world powers.

"Contrary to what the Secretary of State seems to be saying to Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif, it was not and has never been Congress's intent to allow the administration to grant a blanket waiver to travellers from Iran in order to facilitate the implementation of the Iran deal," McCarthy detailed in reference to a letter Kerry had written on Dec. 19.

In the missive, the secretary of state told his Iranian counterpart that the White House had the power to bypass the regulations, which tighten the Visa Waiver Program that allows citizens of 38 countries to travel to the United States without visas, but that now no longer applies to individuals who have traveled to Iran, Iraq, Syria and Sudan during the past five years.

Kerry said he was "confident that the recent changes in visa requirements passed in Congress, which the Administration has the authority to waive, will not in any way prevent us from meeting our [nuclear deal] commitments," according to his letter, published by the National Iranian American Council.