SECRETARY KERRY'S REMARKS AT NATO MINISTERIAL

FROM:  THE STATE DEPARTMENT
Statement to Press at NATO Ministerial
Remarks
John Kerry
Secretary of State
Antalya, Turkey
May 13, 2015

Thank you. Just very quickly (inaudible). Let me just say quickly that I’m very appreciative to my colleagues for their courtesy in recognizing that because I have to be back in Washington for the GCC meeting tonight we would speed up some of the topics that we needed to discuss.

And I was privileged to brief all of our NATO colleagues on the meetings held yesterday in Sochi with President Putin and Foreign Minister Lavrov. I think there was strong agreement among all of the NATO members that this is a critical moment for action by Russia, by the separatists, to live up to the Minsk agreement. And that it is critical to be able to get the OSCE into areas of conflict, it is important to end the conflict in those areas, particularly Shyrokyne. They need to try to come to an agreement on a ceasefire. We need to see the full implementation of Minsk, and I think everybody here is united in the notion that our preference is not to have sanctions, but the sanctions will be there in an effort to try to secure the peace that everybody wants in Ukraine.

There’s unanimity among all of the members here in the urgency of the Minsk agreement being fully implemented, and that means that the reforms, the election process, the working groups, this is an enormous moment of opportunity for the conflict there to find a path of certainty and resolution. And we hope very, very much that President Putin, Russia, the separatists, will come together to work with the Government of Ukraine in order to fully implement it and make progress.

We also talked today about Syria, about Libya, about terrorism in general, and the responsibility of NATO to be able to come together to work on each of those challenges. And in addition we talked about the Iran nuclear talks and the unanimity between the P5+1 that we will move into these last six weeks of negotiations with a view to securing the good agreement that we have talked about, in which we will have adequate access, and in which the four pathways to a nuclear weapons will, in fact, be shut down. We’re very hopeful, everybody here is, that that can be a successful negotiation and bring about a transformation within the region.

Obviously, key to everybody is the question of the GCC meeting that we are having tonight and tomorrow at Camp David, and I think all of the member states feel very strongly that defining a more – a clearer defense arrangement between the GCC and other friendly countries and the United States is going to be critical to helping to push back against the terrorism, as well as some of the other activities that take place in that region that are unsettling to all of those countries. So we’re very hopeful – I think we had a very – though quick – lengthy exchange and in depth exchange.

One other thing: The United States stands very firmly behind the Wales commitments, with respect to NATO. We believe very strongly in NATO’s role, particularly on the southern flank in dealing with Libya, in dealing with some of the problems of migrants. And I hope that out of this will come a recommitment to the future mission over these next few years of a new headquarters, of a clearer definition of the mutuality of the role, and that countries will move towards the 2 percent financial commitments that reflect the shared responsibility of support for NATO.

So I apologize that I’m not able to take questions. I have to have another meeting, but I’m very grateful to everybody, and I’m particularly grateful – I want to thank my colleagues for recognizing the need for me to be in Washington for the GCC. Thank you very much.

SECRETARY KERRY'S REMARKS WITH SAUDI FOREIGN MINISTER ADEL AL-JUBEIR

FROM:  U.S. STATE DEPARTMENT
Secretary's Remarks: Press Availability with Saudi Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir
05/08/2015 05:12 PM EDT
Press Availability with Saudi Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir
Press Availability
John Kerry
Secretary of State
Paris, France
May 8, 2015

SECRETARY KERRY: Well, good afternoon, everybody, and thank you very much for your patience. This afternoon we’re going to do this a little bit differently. It’s my pleasure to first introduce my friend and the distinguished Foreign Minister of Saudi Arabia Adel al-Jubeir, and then I will have a few comments, and then we’ll be open to some questions.

So welcome to the Embassy of the United States in Paris, and thank you for your help and cooperation through a very productive day.

FOREIGN MINISTER AL-JUBEIR: Thank you very much, John, for hosting the GCC foreign ministers at this beautiful building in Paris. We had what I thought was a very productive discussion about the status of the P5+1 talks regarding Iran’s nuclear program. We also – we had an extensive briefing about the technical aspects of the talks that lasted over two hours.

We also spent another hour and a half on Camp David and the objectives of Camp David and the issues that will be discussed at Camp David. Don’t ask me to talk about it because I won’t; I can just tell you in general terms that they have to do with the intensifying and strengthening the security-military relationship between the United States of America and the Gulf Cooperation Council countries, as well as dealing with new challenges that we face in the region, foremost of which is the Iranian interference in the affairs of the countries of the region.

We were very pleased with the discussions. I thought they were very – extremely productive, very useful. And we believe that now we have a much clearer sense of the – what we will be discussing at Camp – what our leaders will be discussing at Camp David. And having said so, I will leave that part here. Thanks, John, for hosting that meeting and for having it be such a productive and useful meeting for all of us. We look forward to visiting Washington and Camp David.

I wanted to also pick up on something that I mentioned to you yesterday when we announced that we were looking at a five-day ceasefire in Yemen for humanitarian purposes in order to allow the flow of humanitarian assistance to Yemen. We have made a decision that the ceasefire will begin this Tuesday, May 12th, at 11:00 p.m. and will last for five days and is subject to renewal if it’s – if it works out.

The requirements are first and foremost that there is a commitment by the Houthis and their allies, including Ali Abdullah Saleh and those forces that are loyal to him, to abide by the ceasefire. As I said yesterday at Riyadh, this ceasefire will be throughout Yemen or nowhere in Yemen, and the matter is entirely up to the Houthis and their allies. During the ceasefire there will be a continuation of the air and sea interdiction regarding the flow of weapons to the Houthis and their allies in Yemen.

I’m also happy and pleased to announce that the King Salman Humanitarian and Relief Center in Riyadh will be operational on this Sunday, May 10th. It will be the location in Riyadh where a number of organizations and UN efforts and any other country that wants to participate in the distribution of aid to Yemen to coordinate is free to come and be part of it. We believe that it is critically important that all countries be able to send as much relief supplies as efficiently and as quickly to as many Yemenis as possible.

As you know, that the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques, King Salman bin Abdulaziz, ordered the contribution of $274 million to the United Nations for emergency relief efforts in Yemen. This is above and beyond the assistance that we are deploying to Yemen every day as well as the assistance that we will be providing to Yemen going forward.

It is our hope and our desire that the Houthis will come to their senses and realize that the interests of Yemen and the Yemeni people are – should be the top priority for everyone. And I want to make sure that I make clear that the ceasefire will end should the Houthis or their allies not live up to the agreement contained in this issue. This is, I believe, a chance for the Houthis to show that they care about their people and that they care about the Yemeni people, and we hope that they take up this offer for the good of Yemen and the people of Yemen.

So thank you very much once again, John. Thank you for hosting the GCC foreign ministers in this wonderful building. It’s always a pleasure to be here and be with you and exchange views and ideas, and I think we did this today in a very positive spirit, so we thank you for this.

SECRETARY KERRY: Well, Adel, thank you very much. It was indeed constructive and positive and very, very productive, and I’m grateful to you and all of our colleagues who came here together in order to help make it that. It was well prepared, and I think in the end has really set the stage for a constructive meeting at Camp David.

I’ll say a word just first, if I may, I want to start by expressing my congratulations to Prime Minister Cameron and to my counterpart Secretary of State Philip Hammond and their party for their defying the polls and winning an outright majority in the elections yesterday. As everybody knows, we have a very special relationship with Great Britain. We have deeply shared interests and values. We work together on almost every issue that there is, and now there will obviously be continuity in the relationships built and in the work that we have invested on a number of different priorities and initiatives. So I look forward to continuing to work with Prime Minister Cameron and with Philip on all of our efforts in order to advance global peace and stability, and particularly in this next month and a half to finish our work together on a number of very pressing security issues.

The Gulf Cooperation Council and our Gulf partners have really been at the very center of America’s national interests for a long period of time. And today we find ourselves cooperating on more and more challenges within the region. It is a region that is facing particular challenge at this time, so obviously, by necessity, we – with common interests and with our mutual security and other interests at stake, we have found that it is critical for us to be able to dig into the relationship deeper in terms of ways we can cooperate to have a greater impact on these challenges that we face. And the United States is grateful for and fortunate to have partners who have been willing to stand up with us in the coalition on Daesh, on any other number of vital interests in the region.

Yesterday in Riyadh, for instance, I was privileged to meet with King Salman, who had both the courage and the vision to embrace a full ceasefire for five days. And we said that here in Paris, we would fill out the details a little bit, and with the announcement that the foreign minister has made on behalf of His Majesty King Salman, we now know that to a certainty, on Tuesday at 11:00 p.m. Yemen time, a ceasefire will take place countrywide, providing – providing that the Houthi agree that there will be no bombing, no shooting, no movement of their troops or maneuvering to reposition for military advantage, no movement of heavy weapons or others – that the ceasefire is conditioned on the Houthis agreeing to live by these commitments. And it is a renewable commitment. In other words, if they live by it and if this holds, it opens the door to the possibility of extension and the possibility of a longer period of time for the political process to help resolve these differences.

So anyone who cares about Yemeni people or asserts that they do should take clear notice of the fact that a humanitarian catastrophe is building, and that they are running out of food, they’re running out of medicine, they’re running out of fuel, and clearly, it is an important moment. His Majesty King Salman has recognized that. And despite the fact that he has had cross-border attacks and other challenges, he has made the decision to try to fight for a peaceful resolution. We applaud that. And we believe that all those who have been supportive of the Houthi need at this time to encourage the leadership, and all the way down through the rank and file, to live by this opportunity that is a very important one and very significant in the potential consequences for Yemen itself.

The United States is working with the international community now to try to organize as much humanitarian assistance as possible to be able to flow once that ceasefire takes effect, working with and through the United Nations. And anybody who hears this who has an idea that they want to get assistance into the people, there are organizations – World Food Organization, International Red Cross, others – who work through the United Nations, whom they should be in contact with so that this is an organized and clearly not military movement of goods in any way whatsoever.

Now, I want to be very clear about another thing. A ceasefire is not peace. Ultimately, the parties are going to have to find a way back to the table. And they’re going to have to make tough choices about more than just a ceasefire, because even the most durable of ceasefires is not a substitute for peace. Even the most durable of ceasefires is not a substitute for an inclusive, Yemeni-led political dialogue that all sides can support. And King Salman of Saudi Arabia has made another initiative in order to try to create that dialogue. He has announced a conference in Riyadh to which he invites all Yemeni parties. Now, it may be that not everybody shows up. We don’t know. But they’re invited.

And we support that conference with the hopes that it might produce some further steps forward to have the political resolution, but knowing that everyone agrees that that will lead into the subsequent talks to be held under the auspices of the United Nations and the UN envoy. And we’re very pleased that Saudi Arabia has agreed to support the UN in efforts to also try to help find a peaceful resolution to the situation in Yemen. Only a political solution by Yemenis for Yemenis, in the end, will actually bring an end to Yemen’s crisis. And we are committed to working toward the rapid, unconditional resumption of all party negotiations that will allow Yemen to be able to resume an inclusive transition process that brings peace and stability.

In addition to Yemen, we discussed with our GCC counterparts today preparations for the summit, as Foreign Minister Jubeir – al-Jubeir just said, and that’s going to address a wide range of security issues, folks. It’s going to discuss the threat of regional terrorism, the metastasizing of various terrorist organizations that has become prevalent. It will discuss, obviously, the challenge of Iranian support in some of those particular conflicts. It will discuss the threat of terrorism broadly. And it will discuss how to resolve more effectively those regional conflicts themselves.

So let me be very clear also. Our effort to find a diplomatic solution to the nuclear issue with respect to Iran does not stem from any lessening of our concerns about all of these other destabilizing events within the region. And it’s obvious to all, I think, that it’s easier to address those events if the potential of a nuclear weapon has been eliminated from the equation with respect to the challenges that we face.

We’re also very focused on a continuing basis with the challenge of Daesh and the other terrorist groups. And together, we believe that we are making real progress. A large part of that was, frankly, because of the nations that are represented in the room there. There’s been a very significant diminution of the capacity of Daesh within Iraq to be able to control the territory it used to control, to be able to communicate the way it used to communicate, to be able to move the way they used to be able to move. And so we believe, steadily, that that stranglehold is appropriately ending, and we are forcing them to change tactics. And that is encouraging progress, but we still need more.

And that’s why we were meeting here today in addition to the other reasons that I’ve described, because we need to, all of us, come together in the most effective way possible to meet these newer challenges of this moment in history. And President Obama completely understands the stakes, and that’s why today and at Camp David, we are fleshing out a series of new commitments that will create, between the United States and the GCC, a new security understanding, a new set of security initiatives, that will take us beyond anything that we have had before in ways that will ask our partners to work with us, and they will contribute and we will contribute. It is not a one-way street. It is a two-way street with mutual interests and mutual needs that need to be addressed.

That is why we are also strengthening, together, the moderate opposition in Syria against Daesh and against a regime that has committed an organized, wholesale effort of torture, used chemical weapons against its own people, dropped barrel bombs indiscriminately on women and children in schools and hospitals, and blocked whole communities from getting food and medical supplies to civilians in need.

So we have a big agenda. That’s why we met. And that agenda is marked by new developments almost every single day. I came here to share our views, and we listened a lot today to other views, and I am confident that with Camp David, those views are going to take shape in a form that will greatly enhance our ability to meet the needs of our people and the needs of all those people who want a future that is free of terrorism, free of coercion, free of violence – a future that is reflected by the opportunities that this incredible world we live in today offers people who have that kind of peace and stability. That’s what we’re working for and that’s what we will continue to work for.

Thank you, and we’d be happy to take a few questions.

MODERATOR: Okay. Is this on? The first question is – can you hear me? Hello? Okay. I’ll just speak loudly. The first question’s from Nicolas Revise of AFP. Go ahead. I hope your microphone works.

QUESTION: Thank you very much, Mr. Secretary and Mr. Foreign Minister. Mr. Secretary, first on Yemen: Do you think that the Houthis will accept the ceasefire, and are you going to talk to your Iranian and Russian counterparts to ask them to use their influence? Secondly, Mr. Secretary, on France: The French president made a landmark visit to Riyadh. What’s your take on this growing strategic relationship between the French and the Saudis? Do you see it affecting the unity of the P5+1 negotiating with Iran? And what are your thoughts on the Corker bill passing the Senate in the United States?

And Mr. Foreign Minister, if I may, the coalition has declared all of Sadah in Yemen a military target. How can you talk about a ceasefire and at the same time expand military operations? Thank you.

SECRETARY KERRY: Do you want to go first?

FOREIGN MINISTER AL-JUBEIR: Very simple. We set the ceasefire at five days, on Tuesday at mid – at 11 p.m. in the evening. The operations in Sadah are in direct response to the Houthis attacking civilians in Saudi Arabia and killing civilians in Saudi Arabia. This is something that we will not tolerate. This was a grave escalation on the part of the Houthis that we had to respond to. We cannot allow people to lob missiles into our territory and murder our people. It’s just not going to happen without there being a very, very severe response. And that’s what we’re doing.

But the ceasefire will begin on Tuesday at 11 p.m. It will last initially for five days. We are in touch with international relief organizations and UN organizations to see how we can facilitate the flow of humanitarian supplies into Yemen. There are a lot of supplies in the region. We want to be able to get them into Yemen, distribute them. Whether or not we succeed in doing so will depend on what the Houthis and their allies do. If they interdict, if they advance, if they commit aggression, there will be no ceasefire. If they abide by the terms of the ceasefire, then there will be an opportunity to help the people of Yemen.

So whether there is a ceasefire or not is entirely in the hands of the Houthis.

SECRETARY KERRY: I would just add to that, if I may quickly, sort of honing in on that issue, but I think it’s an important one for all of us. Really, it is not hard if you pass the word and give strict orders to your people to condition the behavior of people in the context of five days of requirement here. And our hope is that the Houthis will spread the word rapidly. That is the reason that it’s not beginning till Tuesday. The reason is to give time, assuming people accept it, to both accept it, to have their deliberations, not to miss an opportunity, to let the people outside weigh in in order to give good counsel, and ultimately to get the word down to the rank and file what the rules are.

And the rules are very straightforward: Don’t shoot. Don’t move around and start to reposition and take advantage of this. This is a humanitarian pause, and they should treat it accordingly. And if that could happen, that could be the beginning of an opportunity for a genuine transition. So as the foreign minister has said, Saudi Arabia has made the big decision – they were the ones with the aircraft, they control the airspace, they were flying, and they totally said we’re not going to fly. We’re not going to bomb. And they’re not in every community on the ground to be the ones to initiate an action. So if the Houthi will live by this, there is a chance to move forward, and we hope that they will take every advantage to pass the word down the ranks.

Now it is possible in one place or another that somebody misses the word and something doesn’t happen and something – but the Saudis have indicated they’re not going to not break this up over some mistake or some minor thing. They’re going to try to keep this alive, but not for some bold, significant, clear effort to attack people, move people, reposition equipment, and so forth. The rules are pretty clear. And we hope people will understand that.

The – and we encourage the countries that have the greatest influence with them and we will be in touch with those countries in order to try to encourage them to take advantage of this moment.

With respect to whether they will accept, however – or not, obviously – we hope they will. We’ve had some indications that that might take place, but no certainty, and the diplomacy will now take place to try to increase that possibility.

With respect to Saudi Arabia’s visit – the visit that was made by the French president to Saudi Arabia, that’s normal course of business, terrific. We have no issue whatsoever with it. We’ve received a full debrief. We appreciate the relationship of Saudi Arabia with many countries. And I met this morning with Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius; we had a good discussion. I met briefly, obviously, at the Arc de Triomphe with the president. We’re all on the same page, and France and the United States agree completely, as we do with the rest of the P5+1, about what we need to achieve in the agreement with Iran and what the standards are that need to apply to it. We all agree it needs to be robust, it needs to be clear, it needs to be defined, and that’s what we’re working towards. So we think that the visit enhances the relationship between all of us and Saudi Arabia, and that’s important. And we welcome it.

With respect to the bill in Congress, let me just say that we’ve been very, very clear that the bill that was passed out by this Foreign Relations Committee was really the kind of reasonable and acceptable compromise that the President was prepared to support. And that’s why he did support it, because it was changed from the original. And we’re pleased to see that it’s overwhelmingly passed the Senate, staying true to the bipartisan compromise. And we’re very hopeful that the House is going to similarly protect this in the same way that the Senate did and give Congress the opportunity that we think and I, as a 28-year veteran of Congress, believe ought to have to be able to review this deal in a responsible way. I was also very pleased to see that 151 members of the House of Representatives signed a letter supporting the President’s efforts to achieve this deal, to achieve a good deal, and they supported the idea the President ought to be able to continue to negotiate without interference on the terms of that negotiation by the Congress.

So all in all, I think it was very constructive, and we welcome where we are. Now the necessity is to get down to the nitty-gritty of the tough part of the negotiations to get the details pinned down over the course of the next weeks.

FOREIGN MINISTER AL-JUBEIR: If I may, could I follow up on your questions with regards to Yemen? I want to make clear that no country in the world has given more economic assistance to Yemen than the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has over the last 40-plus years. No country in the world will give more to Yemen going forward in the future than Saudi Arabia, I have no doubt about it. We want what’s best for Yemen. We want Yemen to overcome the difficult period it is going through. It was Saudi Arabia and the GCC countries that came up with the GCC initiative which set the stage for the transition in Yemen.

It was, ironically, the GCC initiative that brought the Houthis into the political process from which they were excluded. The transition was then negatively affected by former President Ali Abdullah Saleh and by the Houthis, and they tried to take over the country by force, which we will not allow. They had a militia that operated outside the control of the Yemeni Government, which should not be allowed. The last thing we need on our border is a militia armed with missiles, in control of an air force, that is loyal to Iran and Hizballah. It’s just not going to happen. You cannot have a normal country where one group has arms. And so our advice to the Houthis is: You are part of Yemen. You have a role to play in Yemen. You have a right to be in the Yemeni Government like every other Yemeni group, but you cannot have a privileged position where you have veto power over the country or where you take over the country.

So it was extremely painful for us to take the step of using force in Yemen. It was a last resort. Had we not done this, Yemen would have fallen. And so we responded to the request by the legitimate government in order to protect the Yemeni people and to protect the legitimate government of Yemen. The intention was not to commit aggression against the Houthis – quite the contrary; it was to stop the Houthis from committing aggression against Yemen and its people.

And so I hope that the Houthis will accept the terms of the ceasefire, that they will stop their aggression against the Yemeni people and against Yemen, and that they will allow relief to flow into Yemen so we can help the Yemeni people. And I hope that they will be able to participate in the political process so that we can resolve Yemen’s problems peacefully around the negotiating table rather than on the battlefield.

MODERATOR: Hussein Kneiber of al-Arabiya.

QUESTION: Mr. Secretary, you said yesterday in Riyadh and you have just repeated it now that the United States is concerned deeply about Iran’s action in the region. Yesterday, also in Riyadh, you said that there are some steps to provide greater stability and security in the region. What are these steps, and are they related with the military cooperation that you intend to widen with Saudi Arabia?

A question for Excellency al-Jubeir – Foreign Minister al-Jubeir. (In Arabic.)

FOREIGN MINISTER AL-JUBEIR: (Via interpreter) -- the assurances are there and the will is there on both sides, by the U.S. and the GCC. And it does not require assurances.

As for the assurances concerning defending the GCC, these have been in place for over six or eight decades. We have witnessed in the ’80s when the Soviet Union entered Afghanistan, the United States worked with Saudi Arabia to support – to defend against the Mujahedeen, and when Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait, also the U.S. worked to establish an international coalition of more than 30 countries to liberate Kuwait and defend the region as a whole.

The United States and Saudi Arabia are working closely also with our partners and allies in the region to face – to confront terrorism, extremism, and Daesh, and also to protect the navigation routes.

And now I expect in the coming period there will be further strengthening and enhancement of these efforts so that the relations or joint action will be more effective and more expansive in all areas, whether it relates to cyber security or defense against ballistic missiles or training – military training or equipping. These are further progress in issues that we are already working on, and it’s natural for them to be enhanced and intensified between friendly countries.

SECRETARY KERRY: So today and yesterday I referenced sort of concerns about one particular country, but I think that you know, everybody knows, that no security arrangement or agreement among a whole group of countries, particularly in that region, is confined to one concern. We have a broad array of concerns, which we will be expressing in the context of Camp David, which relate to destabilizing efforts by anybody in the region, which relate to terrorist organizations that are spreading in the region. You have, obviously, al-Shabaab in Somalia; you’ve had Boko Haram in Mali; you have Daesh in Libya; you have al-Nusrah and al-Qaida and ISIL and others all through. I mean, those are the concerns: the destabilization of the region by a number of different entities, and obviously we all know that Iran has supported Hizballah and has supported Houthis and other efforts.

So – but this is not one-country specific as an initiative. This is a broad understanding that countries that want to have stability and peace and play by the rules and live up to international law and not have UN sanctions against them and begin to live to standards, that’s what we’re seeking and our belief is that the challenges we’re facing in terms of these predatory entities that come into challenged governing spaces or no governing spaces. As we learned in Afghanistan, the absence of governed – ungoverned spaces filled often by the worst – the worst actors, and we saw the results in 2001 and we’ve seen them in other times.

So we are banding together to expand our capacity to deal with the future. And that is not limited only to – it’s not a military arrangement. The last choice for everybody ought to be military. It’s how do you prevent these things from happening, how do you stop them metastasizing, how do you eliminate intrusive activities in your country that aren’t an overt attack externally but are rather a insidious kind of eating away at the innards of a country through various nefarious activities that take place. And so we have to guard against the breadth of that kind of activity in various ways, and we’re going to explore that very, very thoroughly in the context of this arrangement.

But I think that – the other parts of it that we all have agreed we need to work on are making sure that a lot of young people have jobs, making sure that there’s opportunity for the future, making sure that people are included in global aspirations and in global possibilities. And that will come about by working at these things, listening to each other, understanding the differences of culture, the differences of history, the transitional timeframes that are possible and so forth. And there’s no stereotype. There’s no cookie-cutter stamp that can be put on any one of these countries in any way. And I think the more we sit together and the more we talk about these challenges, the more we become aware of the subtleties that have to be taken into account as you try to find a common way forward.

That’s what we’re doing. That’s what I think makes this particularly healthy as a discussion, as an enterprise, and we look forward to trying to see our leaders come out of Camp David with a common understanding of that way forward.

MODERATOR: Great. Thank you all very much.

SECRETARY KERRY: Thank you, all.

PRESS AVAILABILITY: SECRETARY KERRY WITH RUSSIAN FOREIGN MINISTER SERGEY LAVROV

FROM:  U.S. STATE DEPARTMENT
05/12/2015 06:13 PM EDT
Press Availability With Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov
Remarks
John Kerry
Secretary of State
Sochi, Russia
May 12, 2015

MODERATOR: (In progress) (Via interpreter) ready to start the press conference. Heads of the foreign policy agencies of the U.S. and Russia.

FOREIGN MINISTER LAVROV: Distinguished ladies and gentlemen, thanks a lot for your patience and waiting till the end of all today’s negotiations. Our negotiations took place in (inaudible) the presidential part has just ended, and before that we took very substantive negotiations of the ministerial level with my counterpart Mr. Kerry.

Let me tell you straight ahead that our meeting has taken place during the days of celebrating the 70th anniversary of the Second World War. And we started our today’s events with the common ceremony of laying the wreath to the war memorial. That war memorial was built in honor and in memory of the victims of the World War II, and I believe that all the people of Sochi highly appreciated that Secretary Kerry visited the war memorial.

During our negotiations, both at the ministerial level and during the conversation with the president, we discussed the most pressing issues of the modern world. We touched upon counteracting terrorism and other contemporary threats, as well as ensuring security and stability. We also discussed the factors that influence achieving the task of maintaining strategic stability.

One of the key issues in our discussion was the crisis in the Ukraine. There are certain contradiction and divergences between Russia and the U.S., as related to the origins of the crisis and our contemporary assessments of the way it is developing. But we definitely shared a view that it is only possible to resolve the issue through peaceful ways – through a comprehensive and full implementation of the Minsk agreements. And of course, it requires to launch a full-fledged dialogue between Kyiv on the one hand and Donetsk and Luhansk on the other hand.

This is enshrined in the Minsk agreements that were adopted on the 12th of February. They envisage a launch of the constitutional reform, with due consideration of the opinion of people from Donetsk and Luhansk. It also envisages holding the local elections, as well as resolving the issues related to the blockade that had been introduced by Kyiv towards Donetsk and Luhansk. So all the provisions of the Minsk agreements are fully required to be implemented. We, Secretary Kerry and I, agreed to (inaudible) implement all the agreements that had been achieved in Minsk.

We also discussed the ways to settle the conflict in Syria. We agreed to continue or probably even to build up our efforts and that – ensuring the launch of the process that could lead to implementing the agreements that we envisage in the Geneva communique adopted on the 30th of June.

And we also agreed that the problem of the ISIL’s activities, as well as the activities of Jabhat al-Nusrah are also very dangerous. Those armed groups are getting even more powerful, and they are threatening the peace not only in the Middle East region but also beyond it. We are absolutely convinced that it is necessary to join our efforts and act together more efficiently. It requires efforts of all leading powers. We believe that it is absolutely necessary to consistently fight that evil with no double standards based on the universally recognized principles of international law.

Among other things, we shared our views on the implementation of our agreements aimed at resolving the Iran’s nuclear program. We also discussed the situation in Yemen, Libya, and other Middle East countries. We also discussed the situation in Afghanistan, in the Korean Peninsula, and we emphasize that both U.S. and Russia are advocating denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula.

Of course, we discussed the state of our bilateral relations, including some specific irritators that have been in place recently. But in a broader context, we also discussed our views related to bigger problems that had been accumulating for several years. Sometimes our opinions diverged and we did not always find common understanding of the issues. But we fully understand that it is absolutely necessary to avoid any steps that could further detriment relations between Russia and U.S. We believe that it is necessary to continue the cooperation between our countries, especially given the fact that resolution of many international problems really depends on our joint efforts – on the joint efforts of Russia and the U.S. – and I believe this is one of the main ideas about today’s negotiations, one of the main conclusions and outcomes of today.

Our president firmly emphasized that we are ready for as broad cooperation as possible and as close interaction as possible with the U.S.A. based on equal rights and mutual respect of interests and positions of each other. I’m very grateful to you, Secretary Kerry, for this long and productive day. The floor is yours. Thank you.

SECRETARY KERRY: Well, thank you very much, Foreign Minister Lavrov, Sergey. I greatly appreciate your comments just now and I agree with your summary of the day. I’m particularly glad to be here in Sochi, and I really want to start by thanking President Putin and Foreign Minister Lavrov for hosting our discussions here today – excuse me. Sergey and I talk pretty regularly, but we rarely have the chance to be able to speak for as long as we did today, as uninterrupted as it was today, and obviously there are a number of very critical issues that President Obama wanted me to be able to share with President Putin and with Foreign Minister Lavrov.

As all of you know, we have just in the last days celebrated the 70th anniversary of VE Day, the day that the United States, Russia, and our allies defeated the scourge of Nazism. And earlier today, I had the privilege of attending, with the mayor of Sochi and with Foreign Minister Lavrov, the war memorial here in Sochi where more than 4,000 of the millions of courageous then-Soviets who died in World War II are buried. And it’s a very beautiful memorial and I was very moved by the young children who were there taking part in the ceremony. And I think Sergey and I both came away from this ceremony with a very powerful reminder of the sacrifices that we shared to bring about a safer world, and of what our nations can accomplish when our peoples are working together towards the same goal.

We are obviously in the midst of a challenging time. And here in Sochi today, I was privileged to spend many hours with Foreign Minister Lavrov and with President Putin discussing a number of global issues on which both of our countries are very focused. I’m grateful to President Putin for the significant amount of time that he made available to this discussion, for his directness, and for his very detailed explanations of Russia’s position with respect to some of these challenges, and of the ways that he believed that we have an ability to be able to work constructively together in order to resolve these problems.

I think the fact that leaps out at me, certainly, from this day’s discussions which is precisely what brought me here in the first place, is that there is no substitute for talking directly to key decision makers, particularly during a period that is as complex and fast-moving as this is. To start with, as Sergey said, we discussed Iran, where Russia and the United States and our other P5+1 partners are working very hard through the nuclear negotiations with Iran. We are now coming into the last six weeks of those negotiations. And we all understand that unity has been key to bringing us where we are today. It is also going to be the key to completing a good deal and to our being confident that that deal will be able to be well-implemented. The United States and Russia remain closely aligned in this effort, as do the rest of our P5+1 allies and friends, EU partners.

We also discussed today the real and present danger of Daesh – ISIL, as many call it – and while Russia is not a formal member of the Global Coalition to Counter ISIL, Russia is a very important partner in the global effort against violent extremism. And countering violent extremism is a first-order priority for both Russia and the United States. No one should doubt that the reach of groups like Daesh extends far beyond the particular region of its operations, and it affects every single one of us – the United States, Russia, and the rest of the world. And we are in unity with respect to our commitment to continue to push back against Daesh, and ultimately, to drive Daesh out of Iraq, out of Syria, and to eliminate it as a threat to any of us.

From the Geneva communique to the removal of Syria’s chemical weapons, I would emphasize that we have seen what happens when Russia and the United States work together. It is clearly possible to make real progress and make important things happen. And Sergey just referenced that in his comments. I would underscore it myself. And it is that confidence in our ability to be able to make a difference on some important issues that help to bring us here today to discuss the road ahead. There is an urgent need, we agree, for that same kind of cooperation that brought about the removal of weapons from Syria – chemical weapons – that has characterized our cooperation on Iran. The same kind of effort is now necessary on some other challenges that we face together.

For one thing, while we have come a long way with respect to the chemical weapons, we also both see reports of the current potential attacks on innocent people. In addition, the threat of violent extremism in the region continues to grow. And as we’ve said many times, the United States believes that Syria will never be at peace until there is a political solution, a political transition in Syria. What we need is that political outcome, and negotiated by and for Syrians, and supported and facilitated by key external powers.

So today, we discussed at some length how the United States and Russia might work together on this in the days ahead, and Foreign Minister Lavrov and I agreed to examine specific concepts, but more importantly, to continue that conversation in the coming weeks with increased focus and purpose.

We also discussed other regional issues – Libya, Yemen, and President Obama’s upcoming summit with the GCC countries. And of course, we did spend time on Ukraine, as Sergey has mentioned. I reiterated America’s view that the Minsk agreements are absolutely, in our judgment, by far the best path, the principal path, to peace, and those agreements must be fully implemented, the sooner the better.

I must say we found a fair amount of agreement even as Sergey has accurately disclosed that we continue to disagree on certain components of the walkup to it or certain facts, but we are both in significant agreement on the most important issue of all, which is it will be resolved by the full implementation of Minsk, and we both – all of us and other friends and allies – have responsibilities to undertake in order to effect that implementation. If and when Minsk is fully implemented, it is clear the U.S. and EU sanctions can begin to be rolled back.

But I also made clear our deep concerns regarding the situation on the ground – continued perceived violations of ceasefire in Shyrokyne and at the Donetsk airport; the continued arming, training, command and control of separate forces. And we believe that this fighting, the fighting that is taking place as a result of this – on any side, whoever has instigated it – that it has gone on for too long. And today, I underscored the steps that the United States hopes to see taken by the parties in the coming – excuse me – in the coming days and weeks.

We really believe that a genuine ceasefire in Shyrokyne needs to be undertaken. I think Sergey and President Putin agreed that that is important, as well as the withdrawal of weapons and the demilitarization and monitoring by the OSCE.

Second, there needs to be a real discussion within the Minsk political working groups regarding the path to elections in the Donbas, elections that could be monitored properly and conformed to the Ukrainian constitution, as it set out in Minsk, and also regarding the decentralization that is important, the decentralization status that is important for that region.

We also believe that humanitarian access needs to gain greater freedom of movement – and important very much to the Ukrainian and the U.S. and the UN agencies. We would like, clearly, to see the release of political prisoners, including Nadia Savchenko, and finally, the inspection by the OSCE or IRCC – ICRC of cargo that travels into Ukraine, including humanitarian cargo.

Now, all of these steps can and we believe should be taken quickly, and all of them would make a real difference to the quality of life in Donbas. And they would give all of us the confidence that we need that Minsk is going to be fully implemented and that the conflict can come to an end with that full implementation.

Obviously, I want to leave time for questions, but I want to again say thank you to Russia, to Foreign Minister Lavrov for his very generous welcome here to Sochi today. This was an important visit at an important time, and we didn’t come here with an expectation that we were going to define a specific path forward with respect to one crisis or another, or have a major breakthrough. We came here purposefully to have a very full and open dialogue with Russia’s leaders, the kind of dialogue that is absolutely essential in making progress on the many challenges that we face today.

And I am particularly grateful and I want to express my appreciation to President Putin for the very significant and serious conversation that he engaged in for the very significant amount of time that he committed to this discussion. And I express President Obama’s gratitude for Russia’s willingness to engage in this discussion at a time when the exchange of views could not be more important. So we thank them for talking through these issues face-to-face as we try to come together and find workable solutions to very important issues to all of us.

Thank you.

MODERATOR: (Via interpreter) Dear colleagues, now let us proceed to your question. The first question is for the U.S. side.

MS HARF: Matt Lee of the Associated Press, and I think there’s a microphone coming.

QUESTION: Thank you. Is this working? It’s been a long day, so I’ll be as brief as possible. But there’s so much to go over, it’s a multi-part question. These are for both ministers, please.

Your governments routinely accuse each other of spreading misinformation about the situation in Ukraine and the ceasefire violations. What is the real truth here? Are both sides violating the terms of the Minsk agreement, or is it just one side or some sides of it? And what exactly are you going to do to rein this in and get into compliance?

One (b) would be on Syria. You said you agreed to build up and examine new specific concepts on the political transition plan. What are those new concepts, and how exactly are you going to address the concerns about the reports of new chemical weapons use?

Lastly on Iran, Secretary Kerry, did you ask the Russians again to hold off on the transfer of the S-300 missile system? And Minister Lavrov, if he did, what is the Russian response to that? Thank you.

FOREIGN MINISTER LAVROV: I will make your life easy. He didn’t.

QUESTION: He didn’t.

SECRETARY KERRY: I’ll begin with the last first. I think it is known that we have concerns about the transfer of the S-300, but it is also known that this has been a transfer that was, I think, almost five years ago in the making and was contemplated in the UN resolution as a transfer that was permissible. So it’s not a question of any law or rule or judgment being broken; it’s a question of timing, in our judgment, as well as impact. But we have already talked about it previously and we did not go into it today.

With respect to the issue of violations, et cetera, my sense is, Matt, that we’ve had that conversation today. We’ve talked about the perceptions of violations. What’s important is now to make sure that both sides are making the choices to move forward in implementing the Minsk agreement in its full measure.

And I had a brief conversation with President Poroshenko yesterday. I will have a further conversation with him to debrief him with respect to the meetings here today. And I urge him as I urged the Russians today: Everybody who has any control over anybody needs to take every step possible to fully implement Minsk, and clearly, that means including preventing any breaches whatsoever with respect to the ceasefire.

We talked today about the movement of heavy weapons. We talked today about the need to, particularly, as I talked about a moment ago in Shyrokyne, hopefully that is a ceasefire that might be able to be negotiated in full. I certainly called attention to the fact that whichever side is responsible for firing the first shot, there is not yet a full implementation of the ceasefire that was contemplated by Minsk, and we need to work harder in order to try to see that be put into full effect. We are going to engage with all parties in an effort to try to encourage that to happen.

I will tell you that both the president – President Putin and Foreign Minister Lavrov reiterated their desire to see Minsk fully implemented, and we talked about ways in which we might be able to accelerate that and break down some of the mistrust on both sides which has prevented that from happening.

With respect to Syria, I’m not going to go into any details about the conversation except to say that we both understand and fully accept the degree to which the situation in Syria is increasingly not only unsustainable, but dangerous for the region. We both agree that the rise of Daesh within Syria and the increased efforts of other extremist groups threatens not only the Assad regime itself, but threatens the region as a consequence, and that it is even more urgent for all of us to find willing partners who are prepared to do what is necessary to be able to implement the principles of Geneva, which are a transition to a government that can be secular, maintain the institutions of the state, and transition to peace and stability, protecting all of the minorities and all of the people of Syria simultaneously. That’s the goal, and we intend to redouble our efforts jointly in order to try to reach it.

On the CW, we talked about exchanging specific information regarding the current situation, which we will do. And subsequent to that, we’ll see what our mutual observations are about that information and what steps might be appropriate.

FOREIGN MINISTER LAVROV: (Via interpreter) On my behalf, I’d like to say the following. I agree that John – I agree with John that the ceasefire violations – ceasefire regime violations are still taking place, that the violations of heavy equipment withdrawal are still taking place. Sometimes they occur more often on one side, sometimes on the other.

Today we discussed that just in general terms and we discussed the reports presented by the special monitoring mission of the OSCE. The monitors are carrying out their job quite professionally, though sometimes public officials declare that the monitors are biased, though I do not think that such behavior is in accordance with the Minsk agreements. I know that the – I hope that the Ukrainian authorities have made some conclusions in accordance with the measures that the OSCE monitors took.

There is one more mechanism, which is the Joint Center of Coordination and Control, that is to monitor the withdrawal of heavy armaments. The center was created based on the request of President Poroshenko. Several teams of Russian and Ukrainian officials are working there, and they established quite a good mode of cooperation and they are cooperating with the OSCE monitoring mission as well. They have a very good professional relationship. They have understanding at the personal level, and I believe it is also a very good mechanism of monitoring the violations of the regime. We all hope to reduce the number of violations and in prospect to eliminate violations at all.

Mr. Kerry mentioned some incidents near the engagement line. We’d prefer to call it a disengagement line. We’d prefer it to be a disengagement line, actually. During the preparation for the contact group meeting and the work of its subgroups on the May 6th in Minsk, there were some drafts developed; one of them was dealing with the demilitarization of Shyrokyne and there was another draft that was actually a proposal aimed at supplementing Minsk agreements with withdrawing tanks and armaments with the caliber below 100 millimeters, including mortars.

The representatives of Donetsk and Luhansk were ready to sign the document, as well as the representatives of Russia in the contact group. And as far as I understand, the OSCE representatives to the contact group also were ready to sign that. But the document was not signed and the discussion will continue during the meeting of the subgroup on security that is going to take place this week. I hope that if these documents are signed and are starting to be implemented, it will definitely help us to reduce the risks of ceasefire violations and it will help us to implement all the provisions aimed at withdrawing heavy elements more efficiently.

As for Syria, I agree to Mr. Kerry that we work together to be able to find out the best ways to implement the Geneva communique – of Geneva communique as of 30th of June. The key task of Geneva communique is to resolve all the issues through a direct dialogue of all Syrian parties and to be able to reach agreements on all the necessary reforms, including on transition based on the mutual consent of Syrian parties.

We have been taking every effort to stimulate work in that direction. After two years ago in Montreux, there was a conference that we participated in – and that was followed by the negotiations between the delegation of the opposition of Syria’s national coalition and the Government of Syria – it quickly became clear that it was absolutely necessary to make the delegation of the opposition as representative as possible. We have always stated that it was necessary to engage all the groups – as many groups as possible – through the opposition delegation, including the groups that are not part to the national coalition.

With that view, in Cairo, with the efforts that Egypt has been taking, we organized two meetings in Moscow. All opposition groups without any exception were invited to take part in that meeting. There were two meetings, and at final stages the delegations were joined by the delegation of the Syrian Government. Those meetings were indeed very useful, and the last contact in Moscow resulted in agreeing the document that is called Moscow platform. We regret that the coalition did not attend the meeting, and as far as I understand, they experienced some problems with – in relation with attending the conference that Mr. de Mistura is starting now.

With regard to Syria, our positions with our U.S. partners are very similar. We believe that this process should be representatives, but given the contradictions within the opposition groups themselves, it is very important that all the external actors that can influence these other group have to encourage them to continue negotiations and to implement the Geneva communique as of June 30th. And it requires work with different Syrian groups and units, and it also requires participation of some external actors. We have discussed that today as well. We have various ideas regarding the issue, and I hope that we’ll continue discussion both between Russia and the U.S. and maybe with other countries – with the countries of the region as well as the states that can also participate in the process.

And regarding the most recent report about chemical weapons and the use of chemical weapons in Syria, let me say that we’ve seen the report and we believe that there is a certain directorate of the UN Organization on Prohibition of Chemical Weapons that has to deal with this report. They really have to implement a thorough investigation and to prevent any efforts similar to those that we witnessed in August of 2014. There should be no attempts to use the issue of alleged use of chemical weapons to exercise any political pressure. Sometimes those attempts were taken to encourage the use of force against Syrian Government. (Inaudible.) That’s it I wanted to say.

QUESTION: (Via interpreter) Now the question of the Russian mass media. (Inaudible), TV Channel Russia. If you don’t mind, let me continue the topic of Minsk agreements. Mr. Kerry, you’ve said several times that Minsk agreements is the best way to proceed to settle the Ukraine conflict. What can you say about what Mr. Poroshenko said when talking to the representatives of Kyiv army when he said that they are going to gain back the Donetsk airport?

And my next question goes to Mr. Lavrov. We all know that U.S. is really very capable of influencing the current Kyiv authorities. Could you please dwell more on that? How do you think the U.S. can influence the Kyiv authorities in order to settle the crisis in the Ukraine? Thank you.

SECRETARY KERRY: Well, thank you very much. I have not had a chance – I have not read the speech. I haven’t seen any context. I have simply heard about it in the course of today. But if indeed President Poroshenko is advocating an engagement in a forceful effort at this time, we would strongly urge him to think twice not to engage in that kind of activity, that that would put Minsk in serious jeopardy. And we would be very, very concerned about what the consequences of that kind of action at this time may be.

Now, it may be he was talking about in the long term. He may have been talking about the context of a final resolution or settlement; I don’t know the answer to that. But I do know that resort to force by any party at this point in time would be extremely destructive at a moment when everyone has brought together the working groups, the working groups have met, and the working groups have an ability to try to provide a path forward on all of those issues that many of us have been concerned about over the course of the last months. My strongest urging would be for everybody to give the working groups their effort, to stay invested in the Minsk agreement, to continue to push for the political resolution, and to hold back anybody from engaging in self-help through force.

FOREIGN MINISTER LAVROV: (Via interpreter) Let me tell you that I absolutely agree to what John Kerry – John has just said, that any attempts to engage again in a forceful scenario could be really undermining the efforts that we have been taking. Let me emphasize one more time that we have to strictly follow our path to implementing the Minsk agreements. Russia and the U.S. fully share an opinion that we have to provide for their full implementation. And today, we agreed to take every effort in order to intensify the process and to speed it up as much as possible.

We discussed also the specific measures that we could take. But let me only tell you that various countries maintain contacts with the Kyiv authorities and with the representatives of the self-declared Donetsk and Luhansk republics. And we agreed to have meetings with everyone that can affect the implementation of Minsk agreements. We are going to encourage all the sides to the conflict to implement every provision of the Minsk agreements. While the methods to ensure that can vary and the forms of our cooperation can be various, we are fully aware of what diplomatic mechanisms are available, and we are going to further use them.

Thanks a lot for your participation in the press conference. That was our final question. Thank you.

SECRETARY KERRY'S REMARKS WITH DJIBOUTIAN FOREIGN MINISTER MAHAMOUD YOUSSOUF

FROM:  U.S. STATE DEPARTMENT
Remarks With Djiboutian Foreign Minister Mahamoud Ali Youssouf
Remarks
John Kerry
Secretary of State
Presidential Palace
Djibouti, Djibouti
May 6, 2015

FOREIGN MINISTER YOUSSOUF: (Via interpreter) Ladies and gentlemen, we are happy and proud to welcome in Djibouti Secretary of State John Kerry and his delegation. This is a historical visit which reflects the excellent relationships between Djibouti and the United States. Secretary of State John Kerry met this morning young Djiboutians as part of the YALI program, the Young African Leaders Initiative, which was launched by His Excellency President Obama. This meeting took place at the Salman Mosque. The exchanges between the Secretary of State and the young Djiboutians about the future of the country – these discussions were very fruitful. We talked about tolerance, coexistence.

And the Secretary of State also had a lengthy meeting with President Guelleh. The discussions pertained to bilateral relationships as well as the various crises in the region, notably Yemen and Somalia.

I will switch to English.

Mr. Secretary General, Djibouti is a good and loyal friend and a good partner to the United States, and it will remain so, given the daunting challenges our two nations are faced with in terms of peace and security. We will continue to fight terrorism together and promote tolerance and coexistence. Djibouti values the tremendous job done by the American forces in the Combined Joint Task Force, and I would remiss to my duty if I don’t underscore that the Camp Lemonnier provides lots of job opportunities to the young Djiboutians.

Mr. Secretary, we welcome you again and we are very sorry for the hot weather. (Laughter.) Next time you come, we will ask heaven to be more merciful. You have the floor, sir.

SECRETARY KERRY: (Laughter.) Well, Mr. Minister, don’t – I actually – we had a very tough winter this year, and particularly in Boston, so I don’t mind the weather at all. (Laughter.) I’m very happy to be warm.

Thank you. Excuse me. Thank you so much for a very generous welcome. Je vous remercie beaocoup. You and the president – I appreciate enormously the chance to be able to visit Djibouti. This is my first visit, not just as Secretary of State, but my first time ever. And so I really am appreciative of the opportunity to be here, and I want to thank President Guelleh and you, Foreign Minister Youssouf. Thank you very much for your generous welcome.

A year ago, President Obama and President Guelleh announced the annual U.S.-Djibouti Binational Forum, and we held the initial round of that this year in Washington. We had a very fruitful conversation there laying out a lot of the agenda. We’re following up on that agenda, I must say, speedily and effectively. And I’m pleased to be here now to follow up on the discussions and to be able to talk to the president himself about our relationship.

The United States and Djibouti, plain and simply are friends, and we are working together in common interest on any number of things – obviously security, but well beyond security too. We just talked about a new American school that hopefully will be able to open here shortly. There are other initiatives on the economy and elsewhere. Our discussions today really reflected that we have a lot to talk about, but also things that we can learn about. I will say a word about that in a minute.

Importantly, Djibouti has become a regional base for science, for education, for health, and for the environment. Djibouti is leaning forward on climate change and on new energy sources. In fact, the Government of Djibouti and the Minister of Higher Education and Research Nabil are hosting a conference this week on environmental risk and opportunities. And I was pleased to learn about the partnerships that the local institutions are forging with American universities in order to tackle the threat of climate change.

Earlier this morning, I was privileged, as the minister mentioned, to visit the Salman Mosque and to meet with a number of young students, men and women, who are the future of Djibouti and the future of our relationship. This part of the world has an incredibly rich culture, in part because of its strategic location, and that is a great source of prosperity. But also, it can put it into the center of conflict and turbulence, as we have seen most recently with the events in Yemen. So it matters a great deal that the United States and Djibouti are able to cooperate on the basis of both mutual respect, but also mutual interest, and that’s exactly what we’re doing.

One of the issues that we discussed today very briefly, because so much has happened in the positive – and I want to mention it – is piracy. Since 2007, Djibouti has been an essential partner, vital partner, in the international counter-piracy efforts. And that is important because as many of you remember, just a few years ago it seemed like the pirates were winning. At one point in 2011, pirates were holding some 32 merchant ships captive along with 736 hostages. It was a strange confrontation with history in a way, that at this moment in the 21st century, with all of our capacity and all of our communication, a major sea lane was in jeopardy because of pirates. And obviously, we made a fundamental decision it was unacceptable, it had to change.

With Djibouti’s cooperation, the world community was able to get itself together and strike back. Today, pirates hold no seaworthy ships in this region – zero – and only a small number of hostages, and we hope that before long, that too will be zero. What it proves is that we do have mutual interests where we can find a capacity to be able to cooperate and make a difference. And it goes to show that international teamwork has an ability to successfully meet some of the challenges that we see in the region.

The foreign minister and I also discussed our shared efforts to advance peace and stability in Somalia. And President Guelleh had, through his own connections and his own experience and his own concerns about Somalia and the commitment of Djibouti to be making a difference in Somalia, the president had some, I think, very relevant, important advice and counsel with respect to the road ahead. We agreed that it is critical for government to – the government in Mogadishu to finalize its constitution, hold democratic elections next year, and integrate – particularly important – integrate forces from Somalia’s regions into its national army. And the President importantly pointed out that having a national army which fully represents all of the different interests and people of Somalia will be critical to its ability to be able to have successful elections and move on to the future.

The United States Government recognizes – and I underscore that today both with my presence and what I’m saying – that the Government of Djibouti has made a very important contribution to this effort, and has also committed peacekeeping battalions – two of them – to AMISOM and has hosted the Italian Carabinieri, who train Somalia’s national police. The United States is going to continue to consult with Djibouti as we consider the provisions of broader security assistance to Somalia. And today, I say thank you to Djibouti for its contribution to this important global effort.

We’re also working with Djibouti to assist many thousands of refugees who have fled violence in the region. Djibouti has provided safe haven for many years to Somali refugees, and now, it is providing it to those seeking refuge from Yemen. We – excuse me – we recently provided $2 million to support the UNHCR’s operations in Djibouti alone, along with new support for humanitarian assistance in Yemen itself, where millions of vulnerable people urgently need help. And today, I am pleased to announce that the United States is providing another $68 million in humanitarian aid for Yemen. This contribution will include food, water, shelter and other necessities, and it will support vital work of the World Food Program, the UN High Commission for Refugees, UNICEF, the International Organization for Migration, and other international and nongovernmental organizations that are struggling to deliver aid in Yemen itself, on the ground.

In addition to welcoming Yemeni refugees, Djibouti has also helped to ensure the safe passage of thousands of evacuees from more than 60 nations, including American citizens. Our embassy here, ably led by Ambassador Tom Kelly, has helped hundreds of people to be able to secure medical care, temporary lodging, and the documentation that they need to be able to return home. And I want to thank everybody in our consular division in our embassy for their extraordinary work. The protection of American citizens abroad is a top priority, obviously, always. And we’re going to continue to do everything we can possible to be able to ensure their safety. But we are particularly grateful – we could not be doing what we’re doing today without the help of Djibouti.

We’re working with Djibouti on another challenge, which is helping the people of this country to generate a healthier and more dynamic national economy. That’s why we’re partnering with the government here on a new workforce development project that will help match the training of young people to the needs of today’s job market. During my conversation this morning with the youth leaders, I listened to each of them as they expressed their ambitions for the future, their hopes to learn English, to go to college, to university, to be able to find a job, to help to make a contribution to Djibouti. And what we, above all, want to do is prevent any young person from falling victim to the preying of violent extremists and people who offer a dead end instead of all of the possibilities of education and opportunity and work.

So I thought it was a valuable discussion, as Foreign Minister Youssouf suggested. It wasn’t as long as I would have enjoyed to hear from every single one of them. But I will share with President Obama, who has inaugurated this program called YALI, the Young African Leaders Initiative. And several of the people who were there this morning were either people who attended last year’s session in Washington of YALI or will come this summer. And I know in every case that I have met one of these exciting leaders from all over Africa, they are already fresh out of the university or in university or in early years of working, demonstrating remarkable leadership. They are the future leaders of the continent, and I have said many times, I say it again: I believe the history of this century is going to be defined by the remarkable growth and development of Africa.

I will also be reporting to the President that the friendship between the United States and Djibouti is healthy and it is strong, and we are very thankful to our hosts for their commitment to host our facility at Camp Lemonnier, where we try hard to be good guests. And I’m personally grateful always for the working relationship I have with Foreign Minister Youssouf, and very grateful for the warm welcome and hospitality here in Djibouti today.

With that, we’d be delighted, I’m sure, to take a couple questions.

MS HARF: Great. The first question is from Hidaya of RTV. Go ahead.

QUESTION: Hello, Mr. Secretary of State, Mr. John Kerry. My name is Hidaya Mohammed from RTD Radio and Television Broadcasting News Djibouti. So as you know, the international community deploys efforts --

SECRETARY KERRY: Hold the mike up to you there so I can --

FOREIGN MINISTER YOUSSOUF: (Inaudible.)

SECRETARY KERRY: Maybe it’s not even working.

FOREIGN MINISTER YOUSSOUF: (Inaudible.)

QUESTION: Sorry. As you know, the international community deploys major efforts in order to stop the terrorism, and the result are not (inaudible). So my question is: Is it a strategic problem, and can you explain this failure?

SECRETARY KERRY: This – try to – on which human?

QUESTION: The – this (inaudible) is progressing in Africa, as you know --

FOREIGN MINISTER YOUSSOUF: Terrorism.

QUESTION: Counterterrorism.

SECRETARY KERRY: Terrorism. Counterterrorism.

FOREIGN MINISTER YOUSSOUF: Terrorism, yeah.

QUESTION: Yeah, terrorism.

SECRETARY KERRY: Yeah. Well, the rise of violent extremism is something that has challenged all of us in the world. Extremism and violence and terrorism is not new to this generation, but it really began to burst on the scene as a strategy by some people during probably the 1960s and ’70s, and then has grown but reached an altogether unfathomable, incomprehensible level of depravity and nihilism with the attacks that took place in 2001 in September in New York, and then subsequently in various other parts of the world, or during that period of time, certainly, other parts of the world.

Most recently with the rise of Daesh and al-Shabaab, al-Nusrah, al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula and various other entities, people have regrettably found a way to exploit a great religion and to present it in a completely false manner. And they take advantage of young people particularly, and particularly those who don’t have jobs, don’t have opportunities, people who are poor, and twist their minds, indoctrinate them, and send them on missions of death and terror to literally destroy – not to build, not to provide a future. I don’t hear any terrorist group in the world talking about building schools or introducing people to literature or building a world of tolerance and of opportunity. All you hear them talking about is how other people have to live the way they order them to, and if they don’t, they’ll kill them. And Daesh particularly has proven its readiness to take the lives of other people in the most grotesque public fashion, simply because those people are part of a different religion, part of a different belief, or aren’t them.

So we have to, all of us in positions of responsibility, do everything in our power to reach out to more people, to show them the utter depravity of one road versus the benefits of saying no and taking a difficult road to school, to education, to a job, to building community, to living by rule of law, and by understanding fully what the real nature of a particular religion or philosophy or ideology is.

Djibouti and its leadership understand this, and they are pushing back against this kind of extremist effort, as are all – every country in the region. There isn’t one country here – thank you, sir, very much – there isn’t one country here in the region that I know of as a country that supports Daesh. They’re all opposed to their activities.

And so Djibouti, thankfully, is today at the forefront of our global efforts against terrorism. Ever since September of 2001, Djibouti has fully cooperated with us on this issue, they’ve provided military access to Camp Lemmonier, they have welcomed U.S. counterterrorism training, and because of its strategic location and its proximity to areas of concern, the threat that it faces from al-Shabaab extremists on its own border or people attacking its border, Djibouti is a frontline state in the efforts to stand up against terrorism.

And we will continue to work very closely with the Djiboutian Government on counterterrorism strategies for all of east Africa, for the Arabian Peninsula, as part of our effort to try to offer the kinds of young people I met today at the Salman Mosque the future that they want so much. And we’re grateful to Djibouti for hosting the only military presence in Africa – about 4,500 U.S. military-contracted personnel are on the ground here, and we’re very grateful for this relationship and for what it means, I think, in answer to your question about the pushback against terrorism.

In the end, the victory will not be defined through the military component; it will be defined through the victory of young people over this who embrace a future defined by education, by rule of law, by job opportunities, by inclusivity, by tolerance, and by the real values and principles taught in every major religion and philosophy in the world, which is “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you,” and “Love your brother as yourself,” and so forth. That’s the golden rule, and that’s exactly what is really at the core of all of our efforts.

FOREIGN MINISTER YOUSSOUF: (Via interpreter) If I can say something to answer that question, to complement Secretary of State John Kerry’s answer, it’s that we must state loud and clear that religions themselves are not the source of terrorism, whichever religion. I’m not talking only about Islam. The source of terrorism, its expansion, its escalation come from the fact that there are states that have weak institutions or there are states that have failed to ensure security on their national territory. In Afghanistan, when the state failed, we saw what happened in terms of terrorist acts in New York – 9/11 – which was mentioned by the Secretary. In Somalia, when you had a failed state, we saw what the Shabaab were capable of doing.

Today, in Libya, we talk about al-Nusrah and other groups because the state no longer exists. Syria is in the same type of situation. These states whose institutions have collapsed and which today are experiencing a situation of security void are a fertile ground and the main source of the escalation and development of terrorist activities and terrorists in general. This is a point that I wish to underscore with respect to this question that you asked.

MS HARF: Great. Our next question’s from Lesley Wroughton of Reuters. Go ahead.

QUESTION: Excuse me. I’m sorry, Mr. Secretary. You’ve just pledged additional aid for Yemen, yet today humanitarian organizations said they were unable to operate in Yemen because they’ve run out of fuel. Is it time for that pause so that humanitarian efforts can be scaled up?

Also, looking at Yemen, the Saudi campaign has dialed back on these bombardments, yet its failed to make massive changes on the ground. The Houthi still are entrenched in areas that they’ve taken up. Is it perhaps time to relook at this campaign and your support for it?

Mr. Foreign Minister, Djibouti has played a significant role in bringing it – in taking in foreigners as they’ve evacuated Yemen. What other assistance have you asked from the United States as you deal with increased refugees from this conflict?

FOREIGN MINISTER YOUSSOUF: If I may start?

SECRETARY KERRY: You go ahead. Yeah, go ahead.

FOREIGN MINISTER YOUSSOUF: Actually, we have been dealing with this influx of refugees from Yemen for the past three months – or two months, to be more exactly – by ourselves. I mean that the Government of Djibouti national solidary, social NGOs, communities have been deploying all kind of efforts to assist these people. Of course, so far we have evacuated 12,000 refugees from Yemen. Most of them were not Yemenis. They were Americans, Chinese, Indians, and many other nationalities. We held them at the port, at the airport. We evacuated them to gathering centers sometimes, sometimes to hotels. And we facilitated their evacuation and repatriation to their homeland.

We still have a few thousands of Yemenis in Djibouti. Some of them and their families in the capital. Around 1,000 are located in a region called Obock. We don’t have the facilities to house them there, but we opened a stadium for them. We opened other facilities belonging to private associations. We created a refugee camp there, but it is so hot and the weather is becoming very, very tough. So they are requesting to be removed or moved from that place to Holhol which is in the southern part of the country where the climate is a little bit more acceptable in a way.

But as we all know, the response of the international community takes time. We have been – we launched the call, the appeal to the international community so that the assistance can flow in, but so far we are still expecting that response. But anyway, the overall conditions of the refugees are quite satisfactory. We have a number of medical teams on the spot, some coming from NGOs. Doctors Without Borders, Arab NGOs, and others are trying to help to cover the medical needs of the refugees. And the Djiboutian Government (inaudible) Djiboutian people provides for the food and all other stuffs.

But the – I mean, the offer or the proposal of increasing the assistance to the refugees by the Secretary of State is a good omen. It is indeed a good omen because these people are in need for everything – everything. And we think that the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques also announced something like $273 million for the refugees and the Yemenis in general, and this money will come also as an omen and they will certainly take advantage of that. But I suppose and I assume that the needs are higher than that, and we hope that there will be, as the United States proposed, a humanitarian pause in the conflict so that corridors could be opened and so that this assistance could reach the most in need in this neighborly country. Thank you.

SECRETARY KERRY: So let me emphasize we are deeply concerned about the humanitarian situation that is unfolding in Yemen – shortages of food, shortages of fuel, shortages of medicine. The situation is getting more dire by the day, and we’re deeply concerned about that. And we have urged all sides, anybody involved, to comply with humanitarian law and to take every precaution to keep civilians out of the line of fire, out of harm’s way, as well as to provide the opportunity for humanitarian assistance to be able to be delivered. And several weeks ago we urged the parties to engage in a pause in order to be able to deliver aid. The Saudis, to their credit, immediately announced that they were shifting out of one phase and into a phase for political resolution as well as humanitarian delivery, but that they would respond if Houthi continued to attack; and regrettably, they did. And so, unfortunately, conflict has continued.

Just a day or so ago, the Saudi foreign minister announced their consideration of the need for this humanitarian pause. I spoke with him yesterday. I will be there in Saudi Arabia tonight. We will be discussing the nature of the pause and how it might be implemented, but I am convinced of their desire to implement a pause. And in my conversation yesterday with another foreign minister from another country, there was an indication that others – the Houthi might be willing to engage in a pause. So I think this would be welcome news for the world if it were able to be effected in a way that doesn’t see people try to take advantage of it and either secure more territory or attack people participating in a legitimate pause.

So we hope that the coalition will join in working with the UN and the rest of the global community in order to find a way to deliver aid through the existing aid organizations that have the ability to make sure this is delivered in a way that it’s not contributing to the conflict or somehow being abused or exploited. And hopefully in the next days this is something that can take place.

The Saudis have also – or not the Saudis. President Hadi has called for a conference that he would like to see take place. And we’re certainly supportive of any efforts to have a dialogue, but we also believe it is very important to move to the UN venue as soon as possible because there is no military solution to this crisis. It’s going to have to be a negotiated political process that rebuilds a government and rebuilds Yemen itself. And I think we need to find a way to get to that. But for the time being, the immediate crisis is the humanitarian one, and I hope that very quickly the structure can be put together which will enable humanitarian assistance to be delivered to the people who desperately need it.

MS HARF: Thank you all very much.

SECRETARY KERRY'S REMARKS AT EMBASSY DJIBOUTI CONSULAR SECTION

FROM:  U.S. STATE DEPARTMENT
Secretary's Remarks: Remarks at the Embassy Djibouti Consular Section
05/06/2015 12:54 PM EDT

Remarks at the Embassy Djibouti Consular Section

Remarks
John Kerry
Secretary of State
U.S. Embassy Djibouti
Djibouti, Djibouti
May 6, 2015

SECRETARY KERRY: All right. Well, I’m delighted to see you all here. You guys can’t see. Can you see over there? I’m doing my own press operation here today. (Laughter.) There you go. Wow, we don’t want that to happen.

PARTICIPANT: (Inaudible.)

SECRETARY KERRY: There you go. All right. So as these people know better than anybody, and as you know as well as they do, I guess, you have been doing an amazing job under very, very difficult circumstances over the course of these past weeks, and we’re very, very proud of you. In fact, at the State Department I will tell you we’ve been hearing the stories of all of you down at the docks greeting every citizen; there isn’t anybody who’s come in who hasn’t been warmly received. And you’ve done an amazing job not only of protecting American citizens but of working with the community here in order to make this a seamless transition under the most difficult circumstances.

And I know that it’s always a little bit chaotic. I wanted to personally come here really just to tell the world about the story of what’s behind the news headlines when they read “Refugees trapped in Yemen,” or “trapped in Aden, people trying to get out.” And people have no sense of all the machinery that has to come together to work to find a way to get out, a safe way, get onto a boat, the harrowing nature of traveling across water under those kinds of circumstances; your family huddled on a deck or down below, or if you’re lucky, on a larger military ship where you have greater protection and comfort; and then to come into a port in another country and you don’t know what’s waiting for you, you don’t know where you’re going, you don’t know if you’re going to eat, you don’t know what’s going to happen to you. And a – friendly faces on the dock waiting to say, “It’s going to be okay,” makes all the difference in the world.

And the entire State Department family contributed to this effort from – literally, from Madrid to Jerusalem to Casablanca, people have come together in order to work to provide not only additional people, but to provide the connections so people know who’s real, who’s what, how do you connect them to family, make those critical phone calls. And the entire embassy here in Djibouti and the entire embassy community – American and local staff – have all joined together to provide – they’ve donated food, they’ve donated clothing, they’ve donated water to some of the most needy U.S. citizens. And I will tell you everybody appreciates it, but particularly every American back home says thank you to you for doing beyond your jobs.

The – let me tell you a little bit about a few of the people so this gives you a real human being to attach to this. Saleh Mohsen Nasser arrived here from Yemen on April 11th with his wife, Arwa, and their two children, Sharifa and Mohammed. And the family fled together with Saleh’s stepmother from the port of Aden, and they arrived with some 60 other U.S. citizens on the Indian naval ship Tarkash.

Saddam Lashuel arrived here from Yemen. Did I pronounce that – mispronounce it?

PARTICIPANT: Yeah, Saddam. Saddam Lashuel.

SECRETARY KERRY: Saddam Lashuel – all right – came from Yemen on April 16th on the Indian naval ship Sumitra with his wife, their two children, who I see here – Hadeel and Zuha. And he was already documented – they were documented as a U.S. citizen at birth, but Zuha had not yet received her first U.S. passport, so there was a hurdle you have to cross. And through consular officers at the port, Saddam was able to pass a message to his brother in the United States through Ambassador Kelly to let him know that the family had arrived here safely.

Amar Motahar Zabarah arrived here from Yemen on April 16th on the Indian naval ship Sumitra with his U.S. citizen brothers, Hamzah, and Hamzah’s wife, Eman; his U.S. citizen sisters, Nasiebah and Nafiesah and Ala’a and his Yemen-born sister, Aya. And the family was in contact with the department before they left Yemen. Several officers helped them to find the transportation they needed and laid the groundwork for further assistance on arrival here in Djibouti. And actually, members of Congress had reached out to the United States – to the State Department and the embassy on the family’s behalf expressing their concern in trying to help break through the red tape.

So what you have all done and what we do, frankly, every day here – but this is special because it’s been so intense – is to change a catastrophic and daunting situation for individual human beings, American citizens, into something manageable and something less traumatic and something that ultimately can reunite them with family and with country. And so it means an enormous amount to President Obama, to me, and to every American to know that people are over here working like that to represent our country and to take care of American citizens no matter where they may be living and no matter what their circumstances may be.

This is not the easiest time, as we all know, for diplomacy in the Middle East. Four United States embassies have been closed because of the security situations in one part of this world or another, and there is extra pressure on the posts, therefore, that are open. And because of the location, Djibouti is carrying a large part of this burden, so that is a major reason why I wanted to come here today. This country, as small as it is, and its mission are extremely important, and everybody here can now begin to see more realistically why that is.

So thank you for carrying the flag, thank you for working the extra hours, for going to such great lengths to represent us as well as you have all done. We are very, very proud of you. Thank you so much. (Applause.)

SECRETARY KERRY'S REMARKS IN MOGADISHU, SOMALIA

FROM:  U.S. STATE DEPARTMENT
Remarks in Mogadishu, Somalia
Remarks
John Kerry
Secretary of State
Mogadishu, Somalia
May 5, 2015

I’m very, very pleased to be able to come to Somalia. It was important to be able to meet face to face with President Hassan Sheikh and with Prime Minister Sharmarke and regional leaders and with a range of civil society representatives. As everybody knows, more than 20 years ago, the United States was forced to pull back from this country. And now we’re returning in collaboration with our international community and with high hopes mixed, obviously, with ongoing concerns.

My brief visit confirms what diplomats have been telling me: The people here are both resilient and determined to reclaim their future from the terrorists and the militias who’ve been attempting to steal it. Over the past quarter century, Somalis have known immense suffering from violence, from criminals, from sectarian strife, from dire shortages of food, and from an inability to remain safely within their villages and their homes. In Kenya yesterday, I spoke through an internet link with refugees in Dadaab who had fled their homes for protection from the persecution and from the violence, from the war. I met Somalis who were 15, 18, 20 years old who had never lived anywhere except in a refugee camp; this in an era of unprecedented globalization and opportunity.

So I’m here today because Somalia is making progress in its mission to turn things around. Three years have passed since a new provisional constitution was adopted and a parliament was sworn in. With help from AMISOM, the UN mission here, the United Nations has contributed significantly to this progress. Somali forces have pushed al-Shabaab out of major population centers. A determined international effort has put virtually all of Somalia’s pirates out of business. New life has returned to the streets of Mogadishu, and fresh hope to the people of all the country. I want to acknowledge particularly the remarkable commitment and sacrifice of the nations and countries that make up a part of AMISOM, particularly Kenya, Burundi, Ethiopia, Uganda, Djibouti, and previously Sierra Leone. It is really a great statement about the leadership of African nations stepping up to deal with African problems.

The question now is how quickly and completely the next steps of governing will be taken. The Somali Government has put forward a blueprint for the country’s development as a unified and federal state. It is working with the new regional administration to enhance stability and sow the seeds of prosperity in every part of Somalia. That includes finding the right balance of authority and responsibility between the national, the regional, and the local levels. And we look forward to seeing progress soon on an integration process between the regional forces into the Somali National Army so that we can broaden our security assistance to those forces.

The government is also working towards finalizing and holding democratic elections in 2016. The president, the prime minister, and the regional leaders affirmed to me today that they are committed to making progress on these issues and ensuring that there is a broad consensus on exactly how the constitutional review and the elections are going to proceed. And in addition, he also committed to me today that the mandate will not be extended beyond 2016, that the government will keep the schedule of Vision 2016 and avoid delays, that they will appoint the members of the national independent electoral commission and the boundaries and federation commission by next week. He committed that they will work with parliament to pass the political parties law by next month, and committed to move forward with the integration of the National Army. So I am confident that the leaders came together today from the regions and the federal government to affirm solidly their determination to work cooperatively with the international community and to move the reform process of governance of Somalia forward.

We all have a stake in what happens here in Somalia. The world cannot afford to have places on the map that are essentially ungoverned. We learned in 2001 what happens when that is the case, and we have seen on a continued basis with splinter groups how they are determined to try to do injury to innocent people and to whole nations by operating out of ungoverned spaces. And so Somalia’s return to effective government is an historic opportunity for everybody to push back against extremism and to empower people in a whole country to be able to live the promise of their nation.

In recognition of the progress made and the promise to come, I’m pleased to announce that the United States will begin the process of establishing the premises for a diplomatic mission in Mogadishu. And while we do not yet have a fixed timeline for reopening the embassy, we are immediately beginning the process of upgrading our diplomatic representation. And I look forward, as does the President, to the day when both the United States and Somalia have full-fledged missions in each other’s capital city again. And I look forward as well to the time when we can say, and all the world will be able to see and to measure, that this country is fully united, combining regional strengths with national purpose, able to welcome its refugees home, and secure in a new Somalia that occupies an honored place on the regional and global stage for generations to come.

That is a job, in the end, that only Somalis can accomplish. But together with many other international partners, the United States is prepared to do what we can to help bring Somalia the peace and prosperity and security and the future that the people of Somalia want and that they deserve. Thank you.

SECRETARY KERRY'S REMARKS AT WREATH-LAYING CEREMONY IN NAIROBI, KENYA

 FROM:  U.S. STATE DEPARTMENT
Remarks at Wreath-Laying Ceremony
Remarks
John Kerry
Secretary of State
August 7 Memorial Park
Nairobi, Kenya
May 4, 2015

Rukia, thank you very, very much, not just for the welcome and my introduction and your words, but thank you for your amazing example, for your extraordinary courage, and thank you for still being part of this great family. We really appreciate it. Everybody here has such respect for your journey personally, and we’re grateful to you. Thank you.

Ambassador Godec, Mr. Kiragu, Ms. Selebwa, friends, members of the State Department and the embassy staff here, and those of you who were here on that terrible day in 1998 or who lost loved ones who were here, I am very, very honored to come to this beautiful Memorial Park and to visit with you in what is really hallowed space. And you have made it so welcoming and so restful and peaceful, which is what it should be.

17 years ago, this space was transformed in a single, terrible moment from a hub of commercial and diplomatic business into a site of sheer anguish and horror. Some of you were there, as I mentioned, and suffered severe harm or saw family members or colleagues die. It’s with deep respect and sadness that I lay a wreath dedicated to the many Kenyans and Americans who perished or were injured or who lost loved ones on that day.

Let me be clear: The terrorists who struck on August 7th, 1998 failed utterly in their purpose, which was to implant fear in the hearts of the Kenyan people and to divide America from the citizens of this country. They failed for the same reason that terrorists will always fail. Yes, they can reduce a building to rubble; and yes, they can even deprive innocent people of their lives. But they do not give anyone anything of what really makes life worthwhile: a sense of community, of looking out for one another, of creating something valuable and new, of living in dignity and honor. Without a doubt, those who delight in the suffering and death of others have actually already lost everything that makes life worth living for.

My friends, we know that the struggle in which we are all engaged now is not going to be over soon. Nearly two years ago at Westgate Mall, five weeks ago at Garissa University – the college – and at other times in smaller yet equally vile attacks, terrorists have brought more tragedy to families here in Kenya. So as Rukia said, words are not sufficient to express our sorrow, our outrage, or our wish that we could somehow reverse time and bring all of the victims back. But we do not have that power. We do, however, have the power to fight back, not only with our military and law enforcement, but also through something that may even be more powerful and that may make a bigger difference in the end, and that is our unity and the character of our ideals. Unlike some, we do not define ourselves in terms of hate. We are builders. We are teachers. We are dreamers. We are doers. And we can see proof that in Rukia Ali, who suffered and grieved with others, both American and Kenyan, who worked at the embassy in 1998; we can see it by giving and receiving strength from her colleagues – and look, she has continued to serve. That tells the whole story, marking this year the conclusion of 25 years of a career.

And we see proof of character in the example of Joash Okindo. You all know the story – I just learned it recently – of how this man stood at the doorway when the terrorists were trying to come in and pretended that he didn’t have his keys because he was frantically calling for help, but people didn’t know he was serious. But by keeping those terrorists from getting inside, they had to detonate their bomb outside the protective fence. And just imagine what would’ve happened if Joash had not kept his head and kept his cool. Make no mistake: There is more strength by far in the respect and solidarity that we feel towards one another than there could ever be in any terrorist attack.

So let us agree the only place for al-Qaida, al-Shabaab, Boko Haram, Daesh, and others like them is in the past. The future does not belong to them. The future belongs to the children who are laughing and playing right now in the streets of Nairobi, of New York, of Kano, of Dar es Salaam, of Mogadishu, of Garissa – children who have the right to grow up with joy in their hearts and the opportunity to build full lives of accomplishment and love, and to build families and a future. It is to them that we must dedicate our own efforts to apprehend and prosecute the guilty, secure borders, strengthen governance, invest in the health and well-being of all people, and unite across every boundary of race, nation, ethnicity, and creed to defeat terror and to enrich life.

That is our obligation, and all you have to do is read the words there: “May the innocent victims of this tragic event rest in the knowledge that it has strengthened our resolve to work for a world in which man is able to live alongside his brother in peace.” That’s our mission, and I’m proud to be here to work on it and to join in it with all of you. Thank you and God bless. Thank you. (Applause.)