Monday, August 26, 2013

Kerry’s Statement on Syrian Crisis


U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry today made an important statement on the recent chemical attack in Syria, indicating the administration is holding the Syrian government responsible for the attack and is in close consultations with its Arab and Western partners to formulate an appropriate response. The U.S. is expected to lead a coalition of regional countries, such as Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Turkey and Jordan, as well as Western countries, such as Britain, France, Germany, Italy and Canada, in any military action against Syria.

Due to critical situation in Syria, we are posting the transcript of Secretary Kerry’s statement made in a news conference in Washington on Monday. The text was provided by Federal News Service. The video is posted on You Tube. The transcript:

“For the last several days President Obama and his entire national security team have been reviewing the situation in Syria.

“What we saw in Syria last week should shock the conscience of the world. It defies any code of morality. Let me be clear. The indiscriminate slaughter of civilians, the killing of women and children and innocent bystanders by chemical weapons is a moral obscenity. By any standard, it is inexcusable. And despite the excuses and equivocations that some have manufactured, it is undeniable.

“The meaning of this attack goes beyond the conflict on Syria itself. And that conflict has already brought so much terrible suffering. This is about the large-scale indiscriminate use of weapons that the civilized world long ago decided must never be used at all, a conviction shared even by countries that agree on little else.

“What is before us today is real, and it is compelling… So I also want to underscore that while investigators are gathering additional evidence on the ground, our understanding of what has already happened in Syria is grounded in facts, informed by conscience and guided by common sense. The reported number of victims, the reported symptoms of those who were killed or injured, the firsthand accounts from humanitarian organizations on the ground, like Doctors Without Borders and the Syria Human Rights Commission -- these all strongly indicate that everything these images are already screaming at us is real, that chemical weapons were used in Syria.

“Moreover, we know that the Syrian regime maintains custody of these chemical weapons. We know that the Syrian regime has the capacity to do this with rockets. We know that the regime has been determined to clear the opposition from those very places where the attacks took place. And with our own eyes, we have all of us become witnesses.

“We have additional information about this attack, and that information is being compiled and reviewed together with our partners, and we will provide that information in the days ahead.

“I spoke on Thursday with Syrian Foreign Minister Muallem, and I made it very clear to him that if the regime, as he argued, had nothing to hide, then their response should be immediate: immediate transparency, immediate access, not shelling. Their response needed to be unrestricted and immediate access. Failure to permit that, I told him, would tell its own story.

“Instead, for five days the Syrian regime refused to allow the U.N. investigators access to the site of the attack that would allegedly exonerate them. Instead, it attacked the area further, shelling it and systematically destroying evidence. That is not the behavior of a government that has nothing to hide. That is not the action of a regime eager to prove to the world that it had not used chemical weapons. In fact, the regime’s belated decision to allow access is too late and is too late to be credible.

“Today’s reports of an attack on the U.N. investigators, together with the continued shelling of these very neighborhoods, only further weakens the regime’s credibility. At President Obama’s direction, I’ve spent many hours over the last few days on the phone with foreign ministers and other leaders. The administration is actively consulting with members of Congress, and we will continue to have these conversations in the days ahead. President Obama has also been in close touch with the leaders of our key allies, and the president will be making an informed decision about how to respond to this indiscriminate use of chemical weapons.

“But make no mistake: President Obama believes there must be accountability for those who would use the world’s most heinous weapons against the world’s most vulnerable people. Nothing today is more serious, and nothing is receiving more serious scrutiny.”

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

Are there any terrorist contact this blog?
The US told that it is too late for Syria to agree for an entry of the UN inspectors.

Looks like it was not to late late for the US to "appeal" for "constraints" when their puppets in Egypt killed hundreads of supporters of the democratically elected government.

Anonymous said...

Kerry is barking fpr his Zionist masters. The fact is that the US due to AIPAC and the Jewish blood-lust cabal has boxed itself with "redlines" in both Syria and Iran. The US is bankrupt and has reached the debt ceiling and war with Syria without even the veneer of "UN Mandate" will be a disaster. The minimum cost will be around $5 billion a month even without any boots on the ground. The US military is overstretched and Syria is not isolated and has a tough military with strong allies. The first to burn will be the Zionist entity, Jordan and Lebanon.

The US sent Qaboos and the Zionist Jeffrey Feldman who at the State Department was running the Iran desk. Both Qaboos and Feldman made no headway in their attempts to persuade the Iranians that the US was amenable to a last-minute understanding on Syria for holding back an attack.

Sayyed Ali Khamenei responded with a cold public statement: If the Americans attack Syria, “the entire Middle East will suffer from burns,” he said.

I believe that a unprovoked war against Syria will make Iraq look like a day at Disney World. The ramifications of a war on Syria without any justification will really set off an inferno in the region with global consequences. The Zionists will not remain immune. I hope there are some sane Americans left as the Zionists are literally crazy.

Anonymous said...

How relevant is this faked justice performed and prenounced by the "elected clowns" of the empire, where for the murders of several hundreads villagers of My Lai; which included elderly, women and infants only one "veteran" was sentenced and served his couple years' term in a "HOUSE ARREST".
During that mass murder women, before they were executed, were gang raped by "honorable sevicemen"....

How about mass killing in Hiroshima and Nagasaki...was there to late to stop that kiling or was that well pre - planned operation.
Wasn't possible to punish Hirohito and his cronies instead to kill, in an EARLY MORNING, almost thousand times more victims than in Syria.

Anonymous said...

"But make no mistake: President Obama believes there must be accountability for those who would use the world’s most heinous weapons against the world’s most vulnerable people."

Good job! I can't wait until the US starts bombing the rebels.

Anonymous said...

What a contemptible war mongering thug

Anonymous said...

Iranian WMD manufacturing capability:


As reported by Islamic Republic News Agency, on 19 October 1988 (two months after the war had ended), Parliamentary speaker (and future president) Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani declared that "...chemical bombs and biological weapons are the poor man's atomic bombs and can easily be produced. We should at least consider them for our defense... Although the use of such weapons is inhuman, the war taught us that international laws are only drops of ink on paper."

Reference, http://www.globalsecurity.org/wmd/world/iran/cw.htm

Anonymous said...

Can we just get the regime change started already, so that we sooner can start working on the Iranian scenario.

Anonymous said...

Lavrov has rejected Kerry's assesment of the Syrian situation....

A-F

Anonymous said...

The US and their "Zionist masters" will blow Assad's army to kingdom come!
And there isn't a damn thing the Islamic losers barking in Tehran can do a thing about it!

Anonymous said...

What are you, 9 years old? Grow up.