Remarks After the P-5+1 Ministerial on Iran
Remarks
John Kerry
Secretary of State
New York City
September 26, 2013
SECRETARY KERRY: First of all, I think you’ve heard some of the other ministers. We had a constructive meeting, and I think all of us were pleased that Foreign Minister Zarif came and made a presentation to us, which was very different in tone and very different in the vision that he held out with respect to possibilities of the future.
I have just met with him now on a side meeting, which we took a moment to explore a little further the possibilities of how to proceed based on what President Obama laid out in his speech to the General Assembly earlier this week. And so we’ve agreed to try to continue a process that we’ll try to make concrete, to find a way to answer the questions that people have about Iran’s nuclear program.
Needless to say, one meeting and a change in tone, which was welcome, doesn’t answer those questions yet, and there’s a lot of work to be done. So we will engage in that work, obviously, and we hope very, very much – all of us – that we can get concrete results that will answer the outstanding questions regarding the program. But I think all of us were pleased that the Foreign Minister came today, that he did put some possibilities on the table. Now it’s up to people to do the hard work of trying to fill out what those possibilities could do.
Finally, let me just say that prior to this meeting, I was pleased to have a meeting with Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, and we did reach agreement with respect to the resolution. We’re now doing the final work of pulling that language together, but it’s our hope that that process between the Organization for the Prevention of Chemical Weapons and the United Nations and its resolution can now move forward and give life, hopefully, to the removal and destruction of chemical weapons from Syria.
Thank you all very, very much.
