FROM: U.S. STATE DEPARTMENT
Samantha Power
U.S. Permanent Representative to the United Nations
New York, NY
May 20, 2015
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
The United States condemns in the strongest possible terms the May 20 mortar attacks on the United Nations Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) compound in Melut, South Sudan, that resulted in the death of four people, including one child, and severely injured eight others. We extend our deepest sympathies to the family and friends of the victims and reiterate our call for those responsible for attacks on civilians and UN facilities to be held accountable.
Today’s attacks are only the latest in a series of brutally violent acts against civilians, including the raping and murder of children, resulting from increased fighting between the Government of South Sudan and the Sudan People’s Liberation Army in Opposition, and their respective affiliated militias and other armed groups, in Unity and Upper Nile States over the last two weeks. As this most recent incident underscores, the renewed fighting in South Sudan puts at risk UNMISS bases and protection of civilian sites; and it does so at a time when across the country more than 3 million people are lacking sufficient food and more than 2 million are internally displaced.
The international community is footing the bill for President Salva Kiir’s and opposition leader Riek Machar’s shameful disregard for the devastating humanitarian crisis facing the people of South Sudan. Political and military leaders on all sides of this conflict must put aside their self-serving ambitions, bring an end to the fighting, implement the Cessation of Hostilities Agreement to which both have already agreed, and engage in negotiations for a comprehensive and inclusive peace agreement to establish a transitional government and bring about a reform process that addresses the root causes of this conflict.
South Sudan’s political leaders continue to refuse to prioritize the well-being of their own people, necessitating an increase in international pressure on the South Sudanese parties so that they accept and implement a credible peace agreement. In this vein, we will continue our work with the UN Security Council’s South Sudan Sanctions Committee to gather and review evidence that might be useful for sanctions listings that target political spoilers and those who violate and abuse human rights and violate international humanitarian law.
We regret that South Sudan’s political leaders repeatedly fail to heed international humanitarian law’s prohibition on intentionally targeting civilians. Additionally, all parties should regard UNMISS sites as inviolable and the work of UNMISS personnel should be respected, supported and protected as they endeavor to protect the more than 120,000 internally displaced people sheltering at UNMISS bases and the many others outside these bases who are displaced by the ongoing fighting.
Showing posts with label SOUTH SUDAN. Show all posts
Showing posts with label SOUTH SUDAN. Show all posts
Thursday, May 21, 2015
Tuesday, March 31, 2015
PRESIDENT OBAMA'S LETTER ON CONTINUATION OF NATIONAL EMERGENCY WITH RESPECT TO SOUTH SUDAN
FROM: THE WHITE HOUSE
March 31, 2015
Letter -- Continuation of the National Emergency with Respect to South Sudan
Dear Mr. Speaker: (Dear Mr. President:)
Section 202(d) of the National Emergencies Act (50 U.S.C. 1622(d)) provides for the automatic termination of a national emergency unless, within 90 days prior to the anniversary date of its declaration, the President publishes in the Federal Register and transmits to the Congress a notice stating that the emergency is to continue in effect beyond the anniversary date. In accordance with this provision, I have sent to the Federal Register for publication the enclosed notice stating that the national emergency declared in Executive Order 13664 of April 3, 2014, with respect to South Sudan is to continue in effect beyond April 3, 2015.
The situation in and in relation to South Sudan, which has been marked by activities that threaten the peace, security, or stability of South Sudan and the surrounding region, including widespread violence and atrocities, human rights abuses, recruitment and use of child soldiers, attacks on peacekeepers, and obstruction of humanitarian operations, continues to pose an unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security and foreign policy of the United States. For this reason, I have determined that it is necessary to continue the national emergency declared in Executive Order 13664 with respect to South Sudan.
Sincerely,
BARACK OBAMA
March 31, 2015
Letter -- Continuation of the National Emergency with Respect to South Sudan
Dear Mr. Speaker: (Dear Mr. President:)
Section 202(d) of the National Emergencies Act (50 U.S.C. 1622(d)) provides for the automatic termination of a national emergency unless, within 90 days prior to the anniversary date of its declaration, the President publishes in the Federal Register and transmits to the Congress a notice stating that the emergency is to continue in effect beyond the anniversary date. In accordance with this provision, I have sent to the Federal Register for publication the enclosed notice stating that the national emergency declared in Executive Order 13664 of April 3, 2014, with respect to South Sudan is to continue in effect beyond April 3, 2015.
The situation in and in relation to South Sudan, which has been marked by activities that threaten the peace, security, or stability of South Sudan and the surrounding region, including widespread violence and atrocities, human rights abuses, recruitment and use of child soldiers, attacks on peacekeepers, and obstruction of humanitarian operations, continues to pose an unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security and foreign policy of the United States. For this reason, I have determined that it is necessary to continue the national emergency declared in Executive Order 13664 with respect to South Sudan.
Sincerely,
BARACK OBAMA
Saturday, January 3, 2015
U.S. STATE DEPARTMENT LOOKS BACK AT 2014
FROM: U.S. STATE DEPARTMENT
A Look Back at 2014
Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration
December 31, 2014
Dear Colleagues and Friends,
The holiday season and the end of the year is a chance to reflect on the past and look ahead to the New Year. The year 2014 opened with a set of terrible conflicts raging – including wars in Syria, South Sudan, and the Central African Republic. These civil wars are characterized by indiscriminate violence and attacks on innocent civilians, as combatants flout widely accepted norms and principles. In June, UNHCR announced that more people were forcibly displaced by the end of 2013 – as refugees, asylum-seekers, and internally displaced people – than at any time since World War II.
And then summer brought more bad news and a longer list of tragedies. ISIL’s attacks spread terror across Iraq. Bloody conflict in areas of southeastern Ukraine bordering Russia displaced hundreds of thousands of lives and left thousands dead. Fighting broke out between Hamas and Israel, unaccompanied Central American children arrived in record numbers at the United States’ southern border, and Africa faced the worst Ebola epidemic in history.
Despite this daunting list, humanitarians and supporters of humanitarian causes can take pride in what we have achieved. Aid groups that faced every conceivable obstacle – donor fatigue, staffing shortages, impassable roads, blockades and attacks –still found ways to keep millions of people alive. Humanitarians managed to stave off a man-made famine in South Sudan and to bring aid to besieged cities in Syria. Throughout the Middle East, a vaccination campaign that has reached 25 million children has helped contain the spread of polio.
The United States led the world’s humanitarian efforts by again serving as top donor. With the support of lawmakers from both parties, the State Department and USAID together provided more than $6 billion in humanitarian assistance this year. U.S. contributions powered the work of the UN refugee agency (UNHCR), the World Food Program, UNICEF, and other leading aid agencies. We also played a role in encouraging other nations to give, some made large donations to UN agencies for the first time. Kuwait organized a second international pledging conference for the Syria crisis that Secretary Kerry attended and gave generously itself. And Saudi Arabia stepped in at a critical moment with significant support for Iraq.
The leaders of UN and other humanitarian organizations called attention to the world’s crises and worked assiduously to mount and mobilize effective responses. Aid workers on the front lines showed professionalism and valor, even as they saw colleagues murdered by terrorists and felled by Ebola.
Countries that took in refugees deserve credit for keeping their borders open as the numbers of refugees climbed. Their hospitality saved countless lives and involved true acts of generosity. The massive influx of Syrian refugees in the Middle East is weighing heavily on communities where people are poor and housing and jobs scarce; there is widespread agreement that development dollars should be directed to helping societies that are coping with the arrivals of large numbers of refugees.
Even during challenging times, humanitarians must persevere. We must defend and rally support for humanitarian principles. We must attract new donors from across the globe, collaborate more, and seek new ways to respond nimbly and effectively. Our priorities and programs must evolve, along with refugees’ needs. Millions now crowd into cities, stay for years, and need ways to support themselves, so innovations such as electronic cash cards and mobile health clinics are essential. Because victims of conflict should thrive and not just survive, we must coordinate relief and development assistance. And we should also capitalize on the growing international momentum behind stopping all forms of violence against women or “gender based” violence. We know that women, girls, and children are particularly vulnerable during crisis, but abuses can be prevented and perpetrators held accountable.
This year we commemorated the 20th anniversary of the International Conference on Population and Development – called the “Cairo Conference.” We noted the tremendous progress that has been made around the world to reduce poverty and maternal and child mortality and send girls and boys to school. However, global progress has been unequal, often hampered by discrimination and inequality. John Kerry attended the Cairo Conference as a U.S. Senator, and now, as Secretary of State, he points to the clear evidence that human and reproductive rights, women’s empowerment, and economic development are closely intertwined. At a 20th anniversary celebration in September, the Secretary said:
“We all know that investing in women and youth isn’t just the right thing to do; it’s a strategic necessity. It’s how you create stability, foster sustainable societies, and promote shared prosperity, because societies where women and girls are safe, where women are empowered to exercise their rights and move their communities forward, these societies are more prosperous and more stable – not occasionally but always.”
I’ve also welcomed the growing interest in helping migrants. This year nearly five thousand migrants died in transit, more than double last year’s death toll. The majority perished at sea -- more than three thousand drowned in the Mediterranean. I recently attended a dialogue in Geneva on Protecting Migrants at Sea organized by UNHCR where experts from around the world agreed: whatever the political and logistical hurdles, our first priority must be saving lives. We also recognized that migrants need to be screened for particular vulnerabilities, e.g. in the case of unaccompanied kids, trafficking victims, or because they are fleeing violence or persecution.
In the United States, we can take pride in our program that helps refugees restart their lives here. In 2014, for the second year in a row, we resettled nearly 70,000 refugees of more than 65 nationalities who are now making their homes in cities and towns across our country. Once again, we ensured that they arrived at an even pace throughout the year to give them and their new communities the best possible chance at success. While we continued to admit large numbers of Iraqis, Burmese, Somalis, and Bhutanese, we also are starting to see growing numbers of Congolese and Syrians – two populations that will make up an increasing share of our resettled refugee population in coming years.
Fortunately, our bureau works with organizations that not only share our concerns, but also share our determination to find solutions to seemingly intractable problems. It is a privilege to engage on these issues alongside a host of the world’s best aid organizations. I realize that this letter serves as a reminder of a series of tragic events around the world, but I also write to remind you, our colleagues and friends, that much is being done every day to save lives, alleviate pain and suffering, and help some of the world’s most vulnerable to find safety. Thank you for your interest in and support for our work.
Best regards,
Anne C. Richard
Assistant Secretary
For Population, Refugees, & Migration
A Look Back at 2014
Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration
December 31, 2014
Dear Colleagues and Friends,
The holiday season and the end of the year is a chance to reflect on the past and look ahead to the New Year. The year 2014 opened with a set of terrible conflicts raging – including wars in Syria, South Sudan, and the Central African Republic. These civil wars are characterized by indiscriminate violence and attacks on innocent civilians, as combatants flout widely accepted norms and principles. In June, UNHCR announced that more people were forcibly displaced by the end of 2013 – as refugees, asylum-seekers, and internally displaced people – than at any time since World War II.
And then summer brought more bad news and a longer list of tragedies. ISIL’s attacks spread terror across Iraq. Bloody conflict in areas of southeastern Ukraine bordering Russia displaced hundreds of thousands of lives and left thousands dead. Fighting broke out between Hamas and Israel, unaccompanied Central American children arrived in record numbers at the United States’ southern border, and Africa faced the worst Ebola epidemic in history.
Despite this daunting list, humanitarians and supporters of humanitarian causes can take pride in what we have achieved. Aid groups that faced every conceivable obstacle – donor fatigue, staffing shortages, impassable roads, blockades and attacks –still found ways to keep millions of people alive. Humanitarians managed to stave off a man-made famine in South Sudan and to bring aid to besieged cities in Syria. Throughout the Middle East, a vaccination campaign that has reached 25 million children has helped contain the spread of polio.
The United States led the world’s humanitarian efforts by again serving as top donor. With the support of lawmakers from both parties, the State Department and USAID together provided more than $6 billion in humanitarian assistance this year. U.S. contributions powered the work of the UN refugee agency (UNHCR), the World Food Program, UNICEF, and other leading aid agencies. We also played a role in encouraging other nations to give, some made large donations to UN agencies for the first time. Kuwait organized a second international pledging conference for the Syria crisis that Secretary Kerry attended and gave generously itself. And Saudi Arabia stepped in at a critical moment with significant support for Iraq.
The leaders of UN and other humanitarian organizations called attention to the world’s crises and worked assiduously to mount and mobilize effective responses. Aid workers on the front lines showed professionalism and valor, even as they saw colleagues murdered by terrorists and felled by Ebola.
Countries that took in refugees deserve credit for keeping their borders open as the numbers of refugees climbed. Their hospitality saved countless lives and involved true acts of generosity. The massive influx of Syrian refugees in the Middle East is weighing heavily on communities where people are poor and housing and jobs scarce; there is widespread agreement that development dollars should be directed to helping societies that are coping with the arrivals of large numbers of refugees.
Even during challenging times, humanitarians must persevere. We must defend and rally support for humanitarian principles. We must attract new donors from across the globe, collaborate more, and seek new ways to respond nimbly and effectively. Our priorities and programs must evolve, along with refugees’ needs. Millions now crowd into cities, stay for years, and need ways to support themselves, so innovations such as electronic cash cards and mobile health clinics are essential. Because victims of conflict should thrive and not just survive, we must coordinate relief and development assistance. And we should also capitalize on the growing international momentum behind stopping all forms of violence against women or “gender based” violence. We know that women, girls, and children are particularly vulnerable during crisis, but abuses can be prevented and perpetrators held accountable.
This year we commemorated the 20th anniversary of the International Conference on Population and Development – called the “Cairo Conference.” We noted the tremendous progress that has been made around the world to reduce poverty and maternal and child mortality and send girls and boys to school. However, global progress has been unequal, often hampered by discrimination and inequality. John Kerry attended the Cairo Conference as a U.S. Senator, and now, as Secretary of State, he points to the clear evidence that human and reproductive rights, women’s empowerment, and economic development are closely intertwined. At a 20th anniversary celebration in September, the Secretary said:
“We all know that investing in women and youth isn’t just the right thing to do; it’s a strategic necessity. It’s how you create stability, foster sustainable societies, and promote shared prosperity, because societies where women and girls are safe, where women are empowered to exercise their rights and move their communities forward, these societies are more prosperous and more stable – not occasionally but always.”
I’ve also welcomed the growing interest in helping migrants. This year nearly five thousand migrants died in transit, more than double last year’s death toll. The majority perished at sea -- more than three thousand drowned in the Mediterranean. I recently attended a dialogue in Geneva on Protecting Migrants at Sea organized by UNHCR where experts from around the world agreed: whatever the political and logistical hurdles, our first priority must be saving lives. We also recognized that migrants need to be screened for particular vulnerabilities, e.g. in the case of unaccompanied kids, trafficking victims, or because they are fleeing violence or persecution.
In the United States, we can take pride in our program that helps refugees restart their lives here. In 2014, for the second year in a row, we resettled nearly 70,000 refugees of more than 65 nationalities who are now making their homes in cities and towns across our country. Once again, we ensured that they arrived at an even pace throughout the year to give them and their new communities the best possible chance at success. While we continued to admit large numbers of Iraqis, Burmese, Somalis, and Bhutanese, we also are starting to see growing numbers of Congolese and Syrians – two populations that will make up an increasing share of our resettled refugee population in coming years.
Fortunately, our bureau works with organizations that not only share our concerns, but also share our determination to find solutions to seemingly intractable problems. It is a privilege to engage on these issues alongside a host of the world’s best aid organizations. I realize that this letter serves as a reminder of a series of tragic events around the world, but I also write to remind you, our colleagues and friends, that much is being done every day to save lives, alleviate pain and suffering, and help some of the world’s most vulnerable to find safety. Thank you for your interest in and support for our work.
Best regards,
Anne C. Richard
Assistant Secretary
For Population, Refugees, & Migration
Monday, December 15, 2014
U.S. REP. TO UN MAKES REMARKS ON VIOLENCE IN SOUTH SUDAN
FROM: U.S. STATE DEPARTMENT
Samantha Power
U.S. Permanent Representative to the United Nations
New York, NY
December 15, 2014
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
On September 23, 2011, only months after South Sudan gained its independence and joined the United Nations, President Salva Kiir climbed the dais at the UN to address the General Assembly for the first time. He spoke of South Sudan’s commitment to political pluralism and “to fostering world peace and prosperity for the benefit of all humankind.” A year later, in his first speech before the UN General Assembly, then-Vice President Riek Machar reiterated that promise, and asked that South Sudan’s friends around the world continue supporting the country’s political and economic goals. The world stood with South Sudan from the outset. In 2011, the UN Security Council established the UN Mission in the Republic of South Sudan (UNMISS) to help the young nation consolidate peace and security and to assist laying the groundwork for future development in the years following its independence.
Despite the international community’s support for South Sudan’s independence, the nation’s political and military leaders have unleashed a conflict that has devastated the country. One year ago today, internal political fighting turned bloody on the streets of Juba in clashes between Dinka and Nuer soldiers. That event quickly metastasized into a broader ethnic and armed conflict, unleashing a wave of targeted attacks on civilians that has produced a political, economic and humanitarian crisis of colossal proportions and that threatens regional stability. In one year of violence, it’s estimated that tens of thousands of people have been killed. There are 1.9 million internally displaced people and nearly 500,000 refugees in neighboring countries. Civilians have been murdered as they sought shelter in churches and mosques, and have been forcibly recruited to fight in militias. The risk of a man-made famine once again hangs over the country.
The United States again condemns in the strongest possible terms the ongoing violence in South Sudan, and we remain deeply concerned by the government and opposition’s persistent failure to negotiate a peaceful resolution to the crisis. When the UN Security Council visited Juba in August of this year, I made very clear during our conversations with both leaders that the United States and the United Nations expected both sides to uphold their previous agreements to end hostilities and negotiate earnestly both peace and a transitional government framework.
The United States urges South Sudan’s leaders to engage more urgently and more seriously in the Inter-governmental Authority on Development-led peace talks in Addis Ababa. We stand ready to work with South Sudan’s leaders if they take concrete steps toward peace. We are equally prepared to work with the international community, including the UN Security Council, to hold political spoilers and human rights abusers accountable.
The United States reaffirms its support for UNMISS and urges those countries that have committed troops and equipment to the mission to deploy them quickly. UNMISS must operate at full strength, and it must protect civilians. With over 102,000 people seeking refuge at UNMISS facilities, we remind all parties that UN sites, facilities, personnel and all sheltering civilians must be protected, and that attacks on those facilities, the forces guarding them, and the civilians sheltering inside could constitute war crimes. We further stress that UN and other humanitarian agencies must have safe, unfettered access to those in need of assistance throughout the country.
The commitment of the United Sates to the people of South Sudan is unwavering. But all the good will and humanitarian assistance in the world are no substitute for the difficult compromises necessary to end man-made violence and begin the process of accountability and reconciliation needed to build a sustainable future. Today, the country is at a crossroads. Its political and military leaders must demonstrate courage and lead the nation out of this horrific, self-inflicted, and pointless cycle of violence. If they do not take the necessary steps for peace, they will own the responsibility for war and mass atrocity – just what they fought to erase when they secured independence for South Sudan.
Samantha Power
U.S. Permanent Representative to the United Nations
New York, NY
December 15, 2014
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
On September 23, 2011, only months after South Sudan gained its independence and joined the United Nations, President Salva Kiir climbed the dais at the UN to address the General Assembly for the first time. He spoke of South Sudan’s commitment to political pluralism and “to fostering world peace and prosperity for the benefit of all humankind.” A year later, in his first speech before the UN General Assembly, then-Vice President Riek Machar reiterated that promise, and asked that South Sudan’s friends around the world continue supporting the country’s political and economic goals. The world stood with South Sudan from the outset. In 2011, the UN Security Council established the UN Mission in the Republic of South Sudan (UNMISS) to help the young nation consolidate peace and security and to assist laying the groundwork for future development in the years following its independence.
Despite the international community’s support for South Sudan’s independence, the nation’s political and military leaders have unleashed a conflict that has devastated the country. One year ago today, internal political fighting turned bloody on the streets of Juba in clashes between Dinka and Nuer soldiers. That event quickly metastasized into a broader ethnic and armed conflict, unleashing a wave of targeted attacks on civilians that has produced a political, economic and humanitarian crisis of colossal proportions and that threatens regional stability. In one year of violence, it’s estimated that tens of thousands of people have been killed. There are 1.9 million internally displaced people and nearly 500,000 refugees in neighboring countries. Civilians have been murdered as they sought shelter in churches and mosques, and have been forcibly recruited to fight in militias. The risk of a man-made famine once again hangs over the country.
The United States again condemns in the strongest possible terms the ongoing violence in South Sudan, and we remain deeply concerned by the government and opposition’s persistent failure to negotiate a peaceful resolution to the crisis. When the UN Security Council visited Juba in August of this year, I made very clear during our conversations with both leaders that the United States and the United Nations expected both sides to uphold their previous agreements to end hostilities and negotiate earnestly both peace and a transitional government framework.
The United States urges South Sudan’s leaders to engage more urgently and more seriously in the Inter-governmental Authority on Development-led peace talks in Addis Ababa. We stand ready to work with South Sudan’s leaders if they take concrete steps toward peace. We are equally prepared to work with the international community, including the UN Security Council, to hold political spoilers and human rights abusers accountable.
The United States reaffirms its support for UNMISS and urges those countries that have committed troops and equipment to the mission to deploy them quickly. UNMISS must operate at full strength, and it must protect civilians. With over 102,000 people seeking refuge at UNMISS facilities, we remind all parties that UN sites, facilities, personnel and all sheltering civilians must be protected, and that attacks on those facilities, the forces guarding them, and the civilians sheltering inside could constitute war crimes. We further stress that UN and other humanitarian agencies must have safe, unfettered access to those in need of assistance throughout the country.
The commitment of the United Sates to the people of South Sudan is unwavering. But all the good will and humanitarian assistance in the world are no substitute for the difficult compromises necessary to end man-made violence and begin the process of accountability and reconciliation needed to build a sustainable future. Today, the country is at a crossroads. Its political and military leaders must demonstrate courage and lead the nation out of this horrific, self-inflicted, and pointless cycle of violence. If they do not take the necessary steps for peace, they will own the responsibility for war and mass atrocity – just what they fought to erase when they secured independence for South Sudan.
Tuesday, September 30, 2014
U.S. OFFICIAL'S REMARKS ON MASS ATROCITIES
FROM: U.S. STATE DEPARTMENT
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U.S. Mission to the United Nations: Remarks at a High Level Meeting on Mass Atrocities
09/26/2014 04:27 PM EDT
Samantha Power
U.S. Permanent Representative to the United Nations
New York, NY
September 25, 2014
AS PREPARED
Thank you, Minister Fabius and Minister Meade, for your leadership in convening this meeting.
It is difficult to imagine a more important objective than preventing mass atrocities and genocide. The horrific atrocities of the Second World War galvanized the international community to create the United Nations.
If we are to prevent these atrocities, we must respond earlier, we must respond systematically, and we must respond together. States must do more than endorse statements about the responsibility to protect. States must take real action to prevent mass atrocities.
President Obama has declared that the prevention of mass atrocities and genocide is a “core national security interest and a core moral responsibility of the United States.”
To translate those words into deeds, President Obama has taken unprecedented steps to ensure that our government can anticipate mass atrocities – because we know that the sooner we act, the more options we have.
He has established a standing body - the Atrocities Prevention Board - to focus our government on the risk of mass atrocities, and develop options for responding to potential mass atrocities before they metastasize and slaughter begins.
We are constantly considering what tools can best be deployed to prevent them, or to stop them from occurring. Our diplomats have exerted pressure on capitals, regional bodies, and here at the UN. Our Treasury Department has applied targeted sanctions on perpetrators, and blocked the flow of money to abusive regimes. And in certain circumstances, our military has intervened to stop atrocities from occurring, as it recently did to halt the mass killing of those trapped on Mt. Sinjar.
At the international level, the Security Council has a special responsibility for the preservation of international peace and security, and none of us should take this responsibility lightly.
In recent months, the Council has shown that it can act responsibly, mobilizing attention, resources, and support to end horrific cycles of violence. In South Sudan, we have surged forces to enable UNMISS to respond to a deadly civil war that has already claimed over 10,000 lives. And in the Central African Republic, we have authorized a new peacekeeping mission to support French forces in curbing a wave of sectarian violence that has caused thousands of deaths and displaced hundreds of thousands of people.
I would single out France for its leadership in helping prevent mass atrocities in Libya and helping halt them in Cote d’Ivoire, Mali, and the Central African Republic. And I would applaud Mexico for its announcement this week that it will deploy military personnel to UN peacekeeping operations for the first time in 60 years. Over time, this will prove a decision that helps prevent atrocities.
We have all seen how the irresponsible use of the veto by Security Council members can deprive this body, and the international community, of some of its most effective tools for preventing and responding to atrocities. In Syria, the Assad regime has committed widespread and systematic violations against its own people. Yet – in the face of some of the worst horrors in modern history – four vetoes by members of this Council stood in the way of holding its leaders accountable.
We can ask ourselves whether some 200,000 lives would have been lost in Syria if the Security Council had been able to come together. We can even ask whether ISIL – the monstrous terrorist movement the international community is uniting against – would have gained the foothold it has if we had been united.
The Security Council has the power to play a critical role in stopping atrocities. That power carries with it great responsibility. All five permanent members have a responsibility to respond with acute urgency in the face of mass atrocities that take the lives of innocents and that threaten international peace and security.
U.S. OFFICIALS REMARK'S TO UN HIGH-LEVEL MEETING ON SOUTH SUDAN
FROM: U.S. STATE DEPARTMENT
UN General Assembly High-level Meeting on South Sudan
Thomas A. Shannon, Jr.
Counselor to the Department
New York, NY
September 25, 2014
AS DELIVERED
Madame Chair, Your Excellencies, Distinguished Attendees, I am very pleased to represent Secretary of State John Kerry at this very important gathering. There are many pressing issues facing the United Nations today and I applaud the organizers for giving visibility and attention to South Sudan where the political, security, and humanitarian aspects are having enormous regional and international consequences.
I would like to join Madame Chair in expressing our regret that President Kiir is not here with us today, and respectfully request that his excellency, the Foreign Minister of South Sudan, to express that regret to the President.
I recently traveled to Nairobi and Addis Ababa to discuss with our African friends a great many issues of mutual interest, including the events taking place in South Sudan. As many of you know, the political and humanitarian crisis is sure to worsen if fighting continues between the Government of South Sudan and opposition forces. The two are inextricably linked. As a result of the fighting, more than 40 percent of the population requires emergency humanitarian assistance. 1.7 million people have been forced from their homes, including nearly 100,000 individuals who are seeking refuge at UN Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) compounds in fear for their safety should they leave. The thousands of deaths in South Sudan that have occurred since the parties signed the Cessation of Hostilities agreement in January are deeply troubling, and unnecessary.
Resolving the conflict will require serious negotiations toward a political solution that honors the commitments made on May 9 and June 10 to implement the Cessation of Hostilities agreement and establish a transitional government of national unity. Despite IGAD’s efforts, we have yet to see the two factions come to an agreement on the substantive political issues.
If the talks in Bahir Dar do not result in the parties moving from finger pointing to real negotiations and concessions needed for peace, it is evident that greater external pressure will be needed. South Sudan’s neighbors and the international community need to speak with one voice and should not hesitate to use tools that will increase pressure on both parties. The purpose of these tools is to compel the government and opposition forces to shape and outline the tasks of a transitional government. Punitive measures, including multilateral targeted sanctions on individuals who have undermined peace and security in South Sudan, is one such instrument. The United States has acted accordingly by sanctioning on September 18 two South Sudanese individuals.
The humanitarian situation that we are witness to is a man-made catastrophe and a direct outgrowth of the intransigence of the Government of South Sudan and opposition forces. If security issues are not properly addressed, if the violence continues, and if humanitarian access remains hindered, a large-scale food insecurity crisis is unavoidable in 2015. The Government of South Sudan and opposition forces must cooperate fully with the humanitarian relief effort. They should stop arbitrary and needless obstruction and delays of humanitarian relief activities. We strongly condemn the attacks on IDPs and aid workers. Forced military recruitment of refugees, IDPs, humanitarian staff and especially of children must end immediately. While we welcome the reversal of policies that would have limited foreign aid workers and humanitarian access to critical infrastructure at Juba airport, these policies should never have been contemplated in the first place, especially not in the midst of the ongoing humanitarian disaster.
UNMISS has an important role to play on the ground, including in addressing the humanitarian crisis. It will be essential for the mission to be proactive in implementing the revised UN Security Council mandate as it relates to protecting civilians while building conditions to allow internally displaced persons (IDPs) to return home. The United States supports SRSG Løj’s efforts to manage and resource the mission in accordance with the mandate and to maintain active coordination with and force protection to the IGAD Monitoring and Verification Mechanism.
The United States is committed to the people of South Sudan and is the leading humanitarian assistance donor, having allocated more than $636 million in humanitarian assistance this fiscal year. We are grateful to our international partners, including members of the NGO community, for their contributions and efforts to address the crisis. Despite these combined efforts, additional resources will be needed to continue life-saving aid operations that are desperately needed. To date, the international community has contributed only about half of the $2.5 billion the United Nations is calling for to meet critical humanitarian needs of both South Sudanese who have been affected and those who have fled as refugees. We urge other donors to join us in seizing the moment and responding robustly to prevent the worst possible consequences. Our call also extends to the Government of South Sudan since the ultimate price is now being paid for by the South Sudanese people. It is high time the Government of South Sudan and opposition forces heed the call of neighbors and the international community to prevent needless suffering and to make peace. Such actions are emblematic of leadership and responsible governance that the people of South Sudan so desperately need.
Thank you very much, Madame Chair.
Wednesday, September 10, 2014
REMARKS AT UNICEF EXECUTIVE BOARD SECOND REGULAR SESSION
FROM: U.S. STATE DEPARTMENT
U.S. Mission to the United Nations: Remarks at the UNICEF Executive Board Second Regular Session
09/09/2014 05:54 PM EDT
AS DELIVERED
Thank you, Mr. President, and thank you Executive Director Lake for your remarks. Your statements always allow us to reflect on the impressive range of UNICEF’s truly essential work on behalf of the world’s children every day, often in the most arduous environments. We thank you and UNICEF staff worldwide for your dedication.
Over the last year, we have all seen the devastating impact of a rising scale of mounting and overarching crises – natural disasters, conflicts, and health emergencies, which take a particularly cruel toll on children. As many of these crises have become chronic, children in West Africa, the Central African Republic, the Philippines, Syria, South Sudan, Ukraine, the Middle East, Iraq and elsewhere have suffered unacceptable levels of violence, disruption, and vulnerability to which no child should be subject. UNICEF is vital for children in these kinds of conditions, providing water, medicines, nutrition, education, protection, and critical health services.
Let me particularly highlight the role UNICEF is playing in responding to the recent outbreak of Ebola in West Africa, which could affect almost 20,000 individuals and cause devastating secondary damage to public health infrastructure and economic development in the affected countries for years to come. UNICEF has the trust of local officials and communities and is in a rare position to make a significant difference in reducing suffering, as well as supporting efforts to mitigate secondary effects, and we believe it is critical for UNICEF to have continued flexibility to respond to such complex and evolving emergencies.
We are therefore grateful for UNICEF’s efforts to strengthen capacity for rapid and scaled humanitarian response, such:
Your nominating high caliber and an increasing number of candidates for the Humanitarian Coordinator Pool with tangible incentives for staff to pursue these positions;
Your taking on board the recommendations of evaluations to address gaps and ensure that actions taken are widely understood throughout the organisation;
And your taking the initiative to increase country office preparedness for cluster leadership in high-risk-contexts and improving capacity for cluster leadership.
We welcome any further moves that will ensure more consistent recruitment and training of right-skilled staff for large-scale emergencies, sufficient regular budget allocation to support changing scales of emergency response, better clarity on cluster roles and responsibilities, and increased reliance on joint work with other agencies.
Protection is obviously fundamental, and we welcome UNICEF’s embrace of the Rights Up Front agenda to improve protection of children in emergencies; your work to develop data-driven advocacy around protection; and your actions to improve prevention and response to sexual and gender-based violence.
We also look forward to even stronger emphasis on disabilities in all UNICEF activities,with disaggegated assessments to help ensure that children with disabilities have equal access to humanitarian and other forms of assistance.
We also appreciate Director Lake’s candor about the strain on the organization from multiple emergencies, and his call not to lose focus in the face of calamity on the long-term investments we need to make in children’s health and well-being and the developmental work for which UNICEF has long been known.
You also rightly insist that we look with clear eyes at the underlying drivers of risk, that we redouble every effort to remedy them, with a determination not to fail. You have also outlined a compelling path that would help integrate UNICEF’s emergency and development work in a way that builds the resilience of families and communities at all levels. We agree that the divide between humanitarian and development work is artificial, and we should seek every opportunity to bridge it.
UNICEF’s developmental work is widely and deservedly praised: getting children the nutrients they need to survive and thrive; getting the most vulnerable children to school and ready to learn; promoting adequate water and sanitation, food, and health services; working with other agencies to help prevent teenage pregnancy and help young women get access to trained birth attendants; and partnering with countries to advance the Millennium Development goals.
We need you to continue this work and we appreciate UNICEF’s leadership as a strong advocate for children’s priorities in our continuing deliberations over the post-2015 development agenda.
Turning to management issues, we appreciate UNICEF’s continuing dedication to transparency and accountability, including your pioneering tools like the Monitoring Results for Equity System. You have been a leader in the UN system in this regard.
It’s worthy of note that MoRES has now been expanded from 30 countries in 2012 to 80 countries in 2013, enabling more strategic analysis of data and improved results, including through integration of MoRES into countries’ own planning and monitoring systems, which builds capacity, builds comparability, and improves data collection that can improve results.
With regard to resources, we are glad to note UNICEF’s strong financial situation, with total revenue reaching an all-time high of $4.9 billion, nearly $1 billion more than 2012. These figures are a testament to your hard work on partnerships but mainly to the integrity, enduring value, and urgent need for UNICEF’s work. We also note with appreciation that you have dedicated resources where they are needed, including the 27% of revenue this year devoted to children in emergencies.
Turning briefly to the issue of critical mass: in our view, critical mass should simply reflect all the resources necessary for agencies to deliver the results we have agreed in Strategic Plans and integrated budgets. Every dollar is critical for UNICEF’s life-saving work. In the Board’s deliberations, we think the recently agreed decision on critical mass at the UNDP/UNFPA/UNOPS Board will provide a useful basis for moving forward.
Let me then just close in thanking you and all UNICEF staff once again for your leadership, dedication, and determination to champion the world’s most vulnerable children. Thank you.
Sunday, August 10, 2014
REMARKS: SECRETARY KERRY WITH SUDANESE PRESIDENT SALVA KIIR
FROM: U.S. STATE DEPARTMENT
Remarks With South Sudanese President Salva Kiir Before Their Meeting
Remarks
John Kerry
Secretary of State
Treaty Room
Washington, DC
August 5, 2014
SECRETARY KERRY: It’s my pleasure to welcome President Kiir of South Sudan. The president and I have visited many times there and here, and I’ve had the privilege of being with him at the moment that the referendum took place that gave birth to the nation of South Sudan. This is a very timely meeting because right now South Sudan is suffering the fate of being the most food-insecure nation in the world as a consequence of manmade circumstances. There is a struggle going on, which has been going on for some time, in which innocent civilians are caught up. And President Kiir has agreed – along with the former Vice President Riek Machar – to negotiate, and ultimately to engage in the creation of a unity transition government.
That transition government needs to be negotiated, and the neighbor countries – Kenya, Uganda, Ethiopia – have been deeply involved together even with Sudan in trying to help bring parties together and see if we can’t resolve this in a peaceful way. So our hope is that we can have a discussion today that helps to clarify the road ahead, to try to minimize the violence. There is a commission of inquiry on what has been happening on the ground. It’s very important for us to figure out how that will also figure into the future here.
The most important thing, and I know President Kiir agrees with this, is to make sure that the people are able to find security, and hopefully that we’re able to get food, medicine, humanitarian assistance to people at a time of huge need. And I look forward to my conversation with the president this morning.
Mr. President, if you want to say anything.
PRESIDENT KIIR: Well, thank you very much, Honorable Secretary, and it’s my pleasure to be in Washington at this moment, and on bilateral issues and for your also involvement in the issues of our country. The situation in South Sudan today, of course, on the ground it is not as been reported in the media. And if the two sides – that is the government and the rebels – were forthcoming, all of them, this thing could have been resolved a long time back. But we get difficulty on the side of the rebels. We signed the cessation of hostilities with the leader of the rebels in May on the 9th, which he did not respect. We again met in June and we signed another recommitment, cessation of hostilities on the 10th of June, but they did not abide with all these agreements.
I always say that Riek Machar is not in control of what he calls his army. And so each commanders in different areas are operating on their own. I want to repeat what I said in that meeting, the last meeting. I told the press that if peace was to be brought to South Sudan today or tomorrow, I will be happy because the people who are dying on both sides are my people. I am an elected president, and the people who elected me were not from my tribe. I was elected by all the people of South Sudan. So other people die in support of Riek Machar or is my support – these are all my people.
Those who are in need of humanitarian assistance can be served anywhere, wherever they are. This is still my position today, that if there is any humanitarian assistance, that ought to be delivered to the people who are affected. This thing has – can go unhindered. And it has been happening that humanitarian assistance has been going to the areas affected by this conflict. I’m hopeful that we are going to find a solution very soon to that conflict. Thank you.
SECRETARY KERRY: Thank you, Mr. President. I just want the record to be clear that it is our judgment – and the former Vice President Mr. Machar needs to understand this – that he has broken – it was his initiative that broke the agreement and took his troops back into a violent status. And he needs to understand the importance of living by the agreements. In my conversations with the prime minister of Ethiopia, who made it clear this is his judgment also, he needs to understand the international community is going to be impatient with those breaches.
So what we’re looking for is the fulfillment of the agreement, which means moving to a transition government that heals the wounds and brings people together. And we have said before and I reiterate now that the president is the duly elected, constitutional president of South Sudan, and this is a rebel group. Nevertheless, it needs to understand the importance of adhering to international agreements and the importance of bringing this to a negotiated conclusion and path forward.
So I hope today we can find a way to get back to these talks in a serious way, Mr. President, and I thank you very, very much for your statement and for being here to join us for this conversation. Thank you all very much.
That transition government needs to be negotiated, and the neighbor countries – Kenya, Uganda, Ethiopia – have been deeply involved together even with Sudan in trying to help bring parties together and see if we can’t resolve this in a peaceful way. So our hope is that we can have a discussion today that helps to clarify the road ahead, to try to minimize the violence. There is a commission of inquiry on what has been happening on the ground. It’s very important for us to figure out how that will also figure into the future here.
The most important thing, and I know President Kiir agrees with this, is to make sure that the people are able to find security, and hopefully that we’re able to get food, medicine, humanitarian assistance to people at a time of huge need. And I look forward to my conversation with the president this morning.
Mr. President, if you want to say anything.
PRESIDENT KIIR: Well, thank you very much, Honorable Secretary, and it’s my pleasure to be in Washington at this moment, and on bilateral issues and for your also involvement in the issues of our country. The situation in South Sudan today, of course, on the ground it is not as been reported in the media. And if the two sides – that is the government and the rebels – were forthcoming, all of them, this thing could have been resolved a long time back. But we get difficulty on the side of the rebels. We signed the cessation of hostilities with the leader of the rebels in May on the 9th, which he did not respect. We again met in June and we signed another recommitment, cessation of hostilities on the 10th of June, but they did not abide with all these agreements.
I always say that Riek Machar is not in control of what he calls his army. And so each commanders in different areas are operating on their own. I want to repeat what I said in that meeting, the last meeting. I told the press that if peace was to be brought to South Sudan today or tomorrow, I will be happy because the people who are dying on both sides are my people. I am an elected president, and the people who elected me were not from my tribe. I was elected by all the people of South Sudan. So other people die in support of Riek Machar or is my support – these are all my people.
Those who are in need of humanitarian assistance can be served anywhere, wherever they are. This is still my position today, that if there is any humanitarian assistance, that ought to be delivered to the people who are affected. This thing has – can go unhindered. And it has been happening that humanitarian assistance has been going to the areas affected by this conflict. I’m hopeful that we are going to find a solution very soon to that conflict. Thank you.
SECRETARY KERRY: Thank you, Mr. President. I just want the record to be clear that it is our judgment – and the former Vice President Mr. Machar needs to understand this – that he has broken – it was his initiative that broke the agreement and took his troops back into a violent status. And he needs to understand the importance of living by the agreements. In my conversations with the prime minister of Ethiopia, who made it clear this is his judgment also, he needs to understand the international community is going to be impatient with those breaches.
So what we’re looking for is the fulfillment of the agreement, which means moving to a transition government that heals the wounds and brings people together. And we have said before and I reiterate now that the president is the duly elected, constitutional president of South Sudan, and this is a rebel group. Nevertheless, it needs to understand the importance of adhering to international agreements and the importance of bringing this to a negotiated conclusion and path forward.
So I hope today we can find a way to get back to these talks in a serious way, Mr. President, and I thank you very, very much for your statement and for being here to join us for this conversation. Thank you all very much.
Thursday, August 7, 2014
SECRETARY KERRY MAKES REMARKS WITH IGAD LEADERS
FROM: U.S. STATE DEPARTMENT
Remarks With IGAD Leaders After Their Meeting
Remarks
John Kerry
Secretary of State
Treaty Room
Washington, DC
August 5, 2014
SECRETARY KERRY: Thank you very much. It’s my pleasure to be here with the IGAD leaders: the presidents of Kenya, of Uganda, and Djibouti; and the prime minister of Ethiopia, who is the chair of this effort. And we just met with respect to the situation in South Sudan, and there is a unanimous agreement that this war must end and must end now. These leaders will go back to their region and meet in Addis Ababa very, very soon, where they will decide on specific actions that they are prepared to take in unanimous fashion with their countries in an effort to guarantee that the war comes to an end. They are prepared to issue a final ultimatum to the parties to come to the table, and in addition to that, the United Nations Security Council will be visiting – the entire Security Council – next week to make it clear there is no other alternative except to proceed with the plan of these leaders that they have put on the table.
The United States is fully supportive of that effort, and we will do everything in our power to make a difference. There’s a threat of starvation for 50,000 children, there’s a continued threat to life, there is a tribal series of attacks on both sides taking place that is simply unacceptable. And I wanted to thank the leaders for their leadership. We applaud their initiative to find an African solution and to take the leadership, and we’re particularly encouraged by that.
I was just asked if it’s all right with everybody if the prime minister wants to say a few things as the chair.
PRIME MINISTER DESALEGN: Secretary Kerry, thank you very much for letting me speaking with IGAD leaders. We in the IGAD region and leaders have agreed that the war has to stop and stop very, very quickly. And the region has come a long way in sorting out the problem, and to solve this problem we will stand together. And in this regard, we have come to the end now. The violation of the ceasefire has taken place by Riek Machar.
And so the region has put the comprehensive solution to the government of transitional national unity, which is going to be established in South Sudan. And both parties has to agree to this proposal of the region. And I think if the parties do not agree on the proposal that the region has put in place after studying (inaudible) circumstances in South Sudan, then the region is going to take strong action, as we have put in the IGAD summit – punitive action that has to be taken immediately after convening the meeting of IGAD heads of state and government in Addis Ababa very soon after this summit.
So the region has come to the climax and the human catastrophe has to stop. In this regard, we are ready to propose our proposal, and if they agree, then your ambassador will come to South Sudan. If not, then the region is going to take strong action.
SECRETARY KERRY: Thank you, Mr. Prime Minister. Thank you very much. Thank you all.
The United States is fully supportive of that effort, and we will do everything in our power to make a difference. There’s a threat of starvation for 50,000 children, there’s a continued threat to life, there is a tribal series of attacks on both sides taking place that is simply unacceptable. And I wanted to thank the leaders for their leadership. We applaud their initiative to find an African solution and to take the leadership, and we’re particularly encouraged by that.
I was just asked if it’s all right with everybody if the prime minister wants to say a few things as the chair.
PRIME MINISTER DESALEGN: Secretary Kerry, thank you very much for letting me speaking with IGAD leaders. We in the IGAD region and leaders have agreed that the war has to stop and stop very, very quickly. And the region has come a long way in sorting out the problem, and to solve this problem we will stand together. And in this regard, we have come to the end now. The violation of the ceasefire has taken place by Riek Machar.
And so the region has put the comprehensive solution to the government of transitional national unity, which is going to be established in South Sudan. And both parties has to agree to this proposal of the region. And I think if the parties do not agree on the proposal that the region has put in place after studying (inaudible) circumstances in South Sudan, then the region is going to take strong action, as we have put in the IGAD summit – punitive action that has to be taken immediately after convening the meeting of IGAD heads of state and government in Addis Ababa very soon after this summit.
So the region has come to the climax and the human catastrophe has to stop. In this regard, we are ready to propose our proposal, and if they agree, then your ambassador will come to South Sudan. If not, then the region is going to take strong action.
SECRETARY KERRY: Thank you, Mr. Prime Minister. Thank you very much. Thank you all.
SECRETARY KERRY'S REMARKS AT U.S.-AFRICA BUSINESS FORUM
FROM: U.S. STATE DEPARTMENT
Remarks at the U.S.-Africa Business Forum Leaders Forum Session
Remarks
John Kerry
Secretary of State
"Game Plan: Shaping the Future of a Fast-Growing Continent"
Mandarin Oriental Hotel, Washington, DC
August 5, 2014
Good afternoon, everybody. I’ve had a chance to be able to say a few words to a number of you at a few different events in the course of yesterday and even today, but I appreciate this chance to be part of the business forum.
I want to thank, first of all, the Vice President, who’s been a friend of mine for 35 or 40 years now, 29 of them in the Senate. And I thank him for his contribution of conscience and of commitment to Africa that he has made for as long as he has been in public life. In the Senate, we worked hand-in-hand on Darfur, South Sudan, PEPFAR, and as the Vice President said, he has traveled far and wide, but especially as Vice President to Ghana, Kenya, South Africa, to help build transparent and accountable institutions and to help lift millions of people out of poverty.
I also want to especially thank Michael Bloomberg for – and everybody has, but it’s appropriate – the Bloomberg Philanthropies for sponsoring this event. Michael’s contribution to Africa comes not just in the form of this summit, but through his latest commitment of $10 million that he made just this February to African countries to build media capacity with a business focus and to promote reliability in reporting, educational opportunities, and the transparencies that the Vice President just talked about that markets need in order to give capital confidence and in order to grow.
And finally, I also want to thank Penny Pritzker, my partner, a fellow member of the President’s Cabinet, but a terrific partner in our endeavors to make certain that people understand that in this globalized world, in the transformative societies we’re living in today, that economics – excuse me – is not divorced from foreign policy; it is foreign policy. And foreign policy is economic policy. They absolutely go hand-in-hand, and we are working very, very closely to marry the efforts of the Commerce Department and the State Department in order to assist companies and to work for American business, but also to work for the countries that we represent in terms of their interests and their vision and their aspirations.
Penny, as you all know, spent 30 years building a business empire, literally. She understands that the investments in Africa are a two-way street, and when we help nations stand on their own two feet, we create opportunity elsewhere in the world, and that everybody benefits as a result of that.
Now, my singular responsibility and privilege is to represent the United States of America in our diplomacy. And I get to wear the hat of the top diplomat of the State Department, and it’s a privilege. But I want to say something to you today that is not just from the business perspective, but which comes from the wearing of that hat, which is a reflection of the people that I see in the countries I visit, the leaders I meet and talk with, the aspirations that I hear all of them express, and the firsthand opportunity I get to sink my teeth into other people’s culture, other people’s history and see the world as they see it, and see even America as they see it.
Everyone here understands that we are living in a very different world from two years ago, from five years ago, ten years ago, and certainly from the world that emerged with the fall of the Berlin Wall and the end of the Cold War. Forces have been released everywhere that have changed everything because of their own ideology in many cases, or in some cases just outlook on the world, but also because other things have changed. A world – I sat with a number of young diplomats in the State Department not so long ago, and one of them recently minted from college and the Foreign Service School and this new world of technology made a very profound observation to me, which has had an impact on my thinking about power and how it works. He said that a world where power used to be defined exclusively in hierarchies is now a world where power is defined in networks.
And in much of Africa and across the networked world, it is evident. We heard the statistics earlier of the number of people who have cell phones in Africa today. Everybody shares everything with everybody all the time, and the fact is that that changes politics. It changes the cross currents of decision making. It changes how political leaders can or can’t build consensus in order to try to make decisions and bring their people along with them as they make those decisions. It also, obviously, profoundly changes business, something that Bloomberg has understood way ahead of the curve, which is why they’ve been so successful. It changes hopes and dreams and aspirations. And every political leader and every business needs to be tuned into that reality. No matter how hard some powerful leader of a country might desire, no one can put this genie back in the bottle and change what is happening.
So because of that, we face a very common challenge, all of us together. In Africa, there are some 700 million people under the age of 30, a staggering youth bulge unknown at any time on the face of this planet. And the fact is that all of them, or most of them – not all of them, but most of them – with their increasing awareness of this world we live in are desperate for opportunity, yes, but also for dignity and for respect.
On the other side, we all know too well there are extremists, too many radical religious extremists who distort theology, religion, and even ideology. And they are prepared to seduce these young people in a very calculated and disciplined way to lure them into what is nothing less than a dead end. And we’ve seen the instability that this creates, all of us, and what’s important is that none of them – none of those extremists, they don’t offer an education that helps a young person gain a skill. They don’t help anybody to be able to compete. They have not one idea about a health system. They don’t build infrastructure. They don’t tell you how to build a nation. And they don’t talk about how they will provide jobs or offer a vision for the future. They are stuck in the past. Their challenge is modernity, and because of it, it’s our challenge too.
So there’s something else about those extremists, and it reflects a little bit on what the Vice President just said to you. It’s not just the lack of jobs and opportunity that give them their opening and their recruitment tools. They’re just as content to see corruption and oligarchy and kleptocracy and resource exploitation fill the vacuum. Because it may look like economic growth on paper, but that’s another way that they can seize on the frustration and exploit the sense of lack of opportunity and violation that is the anger of so many people – to wit, a young fruit vendor in Tunisia who ignited so much of what followed. There’s another target that they can turn to. They are the swing voters, in a sense, in the struggle against extremism.
So my friends, that is our challenge. It’s not just to come here and do business. That’s important, obviously. It is the key, the economic key to the future, and we have to do business to grow the jobs, provide the skills, provide the tax base to be able to do the things we want to do. But we have to come together, all of us, with a unified vision and a purpose so that we can present this growing number of young people in Africa and across the world with a viable alternative: quality education with skills for the modern world and with jobs that allow them to build a life and have a family and have confidence in their countries.
All of us together have the greatest ability of any people on the planet to be able to provide this opportunity. And it’s not just economics that creates the sustainable growth and shared prosperity; it’s also this larger vision of what life is about and why there is a greater purpose than just living to work. You have to work to live and there has to be a living there that’s worth it. So we know beyond any doubt that the places – and this is a polite summary of an experience here in America where we do not profess to have all the answers, nor would we suggest to you that ours is the only track – but one thing that we have learned is that in the places where people are free not just to develop an idea, but to debate different ideas, to have not just a job but the promise of entrepreneurship and innovation to be able to transform the best ideas into reality and into a business and into a future – those are the societies that absolutely are the most successful and the most stable on our planet.
And this success is not a mystery. It’s not something that’s hard to achieve if you make the right choices. It’s possible for all of Africa, and that is how one can choose to have an Africa that is not defined any longer, as it has not been for these last 10 and 15 years as it goes through this transformation defined by conflict – less and less. But it becomes an Africa that is defined by rights and by capacity, by dignity, respect, and opportunity. And opportunity is something that Boko Haram and al-Shabaab and many other groups will never, ever provide.
So when the United States is home to some of the most innovative and well-known and respected companies in the world, and when Africa is already home to some of the fastest-growing economies in the world and new leadership that is anxious to grab the future, we have to do more together. We have to partner – which is a theme of this conference – to invest in the next generation, to create good jobs for young Africans, to build a stronger middle class, to provide families with clean power and clean water, to build societies where an open exchange of ideas and information are the defining hallmark.
Business is not just business for the sake of business, and I think all of you know that, at least not for most of the thoughtful businesspeople here and in our country. It is for providing the foundation for people to be able to live their lives with that opportunity, dignity, and respect. I don’t have to remind anybody here that Nelson Mandela, one of the greatest leaders the world has seen in all time, did not spend 27 years in jail so that he could get out and run a business, with no disrespect to anybody here. He did it so that people of his country would have an opportunity to live up to an ideal. He did it for rights – human rights – that are the foundation of any civilized society. And those rights across the continent are best lived out, best given meaning in strong countries with strong economies where prosperity is shared by a strong middle class.
So I close by just saying there is absolutely no question in my mind, from the excitement that we felt yesterday at the first meeting to the energy that we felt in all of your presence here and in the meetings and discussions thus far – all of this is not just possible; it is the future. But we have to make the right choices about skills and education and opportunities, and that will define the U.S.-Africa partnership. And if we work together, if everybody gets this right, this – this meeting and this moment and the days ahead of us can literally become a pivotal defining moment for our future history and for the world.
Thank you all very, very, much. (Applause.)
I want to thank, first of all, the Vice President, who’s been a friend of mine for 35 or 40 years now, 29 of them in the Senate. And I thank him for his contribution of conscience and of commitment to Africa that he has made for as long as he has been in public life. In the Senate, we worked hand-in-hand on Darfur, South Sudan, PEPFAR, and as the Vice President said, he has traveled far and wide, but especially as Vice President to Ghana, Kenya, South Africa, to help build transparent and accountable institutions and to help lift millions of people out of poverty.
I also want to especially thank Michael Bloomberg for – and everybody has, but it’s appropriate – the Bloomberg Philanthropies for sponsoring this event. Michael’s contribution to Africa comes not just in the form of this summit, but through his latest commitment of $10 million that he made just this February to African countries to build media capacity with a business focus and to promote reliability in reporting, educational opportunities, and the transparencies that the Vice President just talked about that markets need in order to give capital confidence and in order to grow.
And finally, I also want to thank Penny Pritzker, my partner, a fellow member of the President’s Cabinet, but a terrific partner in our endeavors to make certain that people understand that in this globalized world, in the transformative societies we’re living in today, that economics – excuse me – is not divorced from foreign policy; it is foreign policy. And foreign policy is economic policy. They absolutely go hand-in-hand, and we are working very, very closely to marry the efforts of the Commerce Department and the State Department in order to assist companies and to work for American business, but also to work for the countries that we represent in terms of their interests and their vision and their aspirations.
Penny, as you all know, spent 30 years building a business empire, literally. She understands that the investments in Africa are a two-way street, and when we help nations stand on their own two feet, we create opportunity elsewhere in the world, and that everybody benefits as a result of that.
Now, my singular responsibility and privilege is to represent the United States of America in our diplomacy. And I get to wear the hat of the top diplomat of the State Department, and it’s a privilege. But I want to say something to you today that is not just from the business perspective, but which comes from the wearing of that hat, which is a reflection of the people that I see in the countries I visit, the leaders I meet and talk with, the aspirations that I hear all of them express, and the firsthand opportunity I get to sink my teeth into other people’s culture, other people’s history and see the world as they see it, and see even America as they see it.
Everyone here understands that we are living in a very different world from two years ago, from five years ago, ten years ago, and certainly from the world that emerged with the fall of the Berlin Wall and the end of the Cold War. Forces have been released everywhere that have changed everything because of their own ideology in many cases, or in some cases just outlook on the world, but also because other things have changed. A world – I sat with a number of young diplomats in the State Department not so long ago, and one of them recently minted from college and the Foreign Service School and this new world of technology made a very profound observation to me, which has had an impact on my thinking about power and how it works. He said that a world where power used to be defined exclusively in hierarchies is now a world where power is defined in networks.
And in much of Africa and across the networked world, it is evident. We heard the statistics earlier of the number of people who have cell phones in Africa today. Everybody shares everything with everybody all the time, and the fact is that that changes politics. It changes the cross currents of decision making. It changes how political leaders can or can’t build consensus in order to try to make decisions and bring their people along with them as they make those decisions. It also, obviously, profoundly changes business, something that Bloomberg has understood way ahead of the curve, which is why they’ve been so successful. It changes hopes and dreams and aspirations. And every political leader and every business needs to be tuned into that reality. No matter how hard some powerful leader of a country might desire, no one can put this genie back in the bottle and change what is happening.
So because of that, we face a very common challenge, all of us together. In Africa, there are some 700 million people under the age of 30, a staggering youth bulge unknown at any time on the face of this planet. And the fact is that all of them, or most of them – not all of them, but most of them – with their increasing awareness of this world we live in are desperate for opportunity, yes, but also for dignity and for respect.
On the other side, we all know too well there are extremists, too many radical religious extremists who distort theology, religion, and even ideology. And they are prepared to seduce these young people in a very calculated and disciplined way to lure them into what is nothing less than a dead end. And we’ve seen the instability that this creates, all of us, and what’s important is that none of them – none of those extremists, they don’t offer an education that helps a young person gain a skill. They don’t help anybody to be able to compete. They have not one idea about a health system. They don’t build infrastructure. They don’t tell you how to build a nation. And they don’t talk about how they will provide jobs or offer a vision for the future. They are stuck in the past. Their challenge is modernity, and because of it, it’s our challenge too.
So there’s something else about those extremists, and it reflects a little bit on what the Vice President just said to you. It’s not just the lack of jobs and opportunity that give them their opening and their recruitment tools. They’re just as content to see corruption and oligarchy and kleptocracy and resource exploitation fill the vacuum. Because it may look like economic growth on paper, but that’s another way that they can seize on the frustration and exploit the sense of lack of opportunity and violation that is the anger of so many people – to wit, a young fruit vendor in Tunisia who ignited so much of what followed. There’s another target that they can turn to. They are the swing voters, in a sense, in the struggle against extremism.
So my friends, that is our challenge. It’s not just to come here and do business. That’s important, obviously. It is the key, the economic key to the future, and we have to do business to grow the jobs, provide the skills, provide the tax base to be able to do the things we want to do. But we have to come together, all of us, with a unified vision and a purpose so that we can present this growing number of young people in Africa and across the world with a viable alternative: quality education with skills for the modern world and with jobs that allow them to build a life and have a family and have confidence in their countries.
All of us together have the greatest ability of any people on the planet to be able to provide this opportunity. And it’s not just economics that creates the sustainable growth and shared prosperity; it’s also this larger vision of what life is about and why there is a greater purpose than just living to work. You have to work to live and there has to be a living there that’s worth it. So we know beyond any doubt that the places – and this is a polite summary of an experience here in America where we do not profess to have all the answers, nor would we suggest to you that ours is the only track – but one thing that we have learned is that in the places where people are free not just to develop an idea, but to debate different ideas, to have not just a job but the promise of entrepreneurship and innovation to be able to transform the best ideas into reality and into a business and into a future – those are the societies that absolutely are the most successful and the most stable on our planet.
And this success is not a mystery. It’s not something that’s hard to achieve if you make the right choices. It’s possible for all of Africa, and that is how one can choose to have an Africa that is not defined any longer, as it has not been for these last 10 and 15 years as it goes through this transformation defined by conflict – less and less. But it becomes an Africa that is defined by rights and by capacity, by dignity, respect, and opportunity. And opportunity is something that Boko Haram and al-Shabaab and many other groups will never, ever provide.
So when the United States is home to some of the most innovative and well-known and respected companies in the world, and when Africa is already home to some of the fastest-growing economies in the world and new leadership that is anxious to grab the future, we have to do more together. We have to partner – which is a theme of this conference – to invest in the next generation, to create good jobs for young Africans, to build a stronger middle class, to provide families with clean power and clean water, to build societies where an open exchange of ideas and information are the defining hallmark.
Business is not just business for the sake of business, and I think all of you know that, at least not for most of the thoughtful businesspeople here and in our country. It is for providing the foundation for people to be able to live their lives with that opportunity, dignity, and respect. I don’t have to remind anybody here that Nelson Mandela, one of the greatest leaders the world has seen in all time, did not spend 27 years in jail so that he could get out and run a business, with no disrespect to anybody here. He did it so that people of his country would have an opportunity to live up to an ideal. He did it for rights – human rights – that are the foundation of any civilized society. And those rights across the continent are best lived out, best given meaning in strong countries with strong economies where prosperity is shared by a strong middle class.
So I close by just saying there is absolutely no question in my mind, from the excitement that we felt yesterday at the first meeting to the energy that we felt in all of your presence here and in the meetings and discussions thus far – all of this is not just possible; it is the future. But we have to make the right choices about skills and education and opportunities, and that will define the U.S.-Africa partnership. And if we work together, if everybody gets this right, this – this meeting and this moment and the days ahead of us can literally become a pivotal defining moment for our future history and for the world.
Thank you all very, very, much. (Applause.)
Wednesday, August 6, 2014
U.S. CONDEMNS TARGETED AND DELIBERATE KILLINGS OF HUMANITARIAN AID WORKERS IN SOUTH SUDAN
FROM: U.S. STATE DEPARTMENT
Attack against Aid Workers in Maban County, Upper Nile State, South Sudan
Press Statement
John Kerry
Secretary of State
Washington, DC
August 6, 2014
The United States strongly condemns the recent reports of targeted and deliberate killings of six humanitarian aid workers in Maban County, Upper Nile State, South Sudan. The people of South Sudan are paying a horrific price for the failure of their leaders to resolve this senseless conflict. We call on all parties to immediately refrain from intimidation of humanitarian workers and the deliberate and ethnically-based targeting of civilians.
The killing of innocent humanitarian workers who risked their lives to provide desperately needed aid at time when 3.9 million South Sudanese are facing emergency food insecurity from a man-made crisis is simply appalling. The Government of South Sudan has a responsibility to protect humanitarian workers, and ensure its forces comply with repeated government commitments to facilitate humanitarian assistance.
In the face of the worsening security and humanitarian situation, it is more urgent than ever that both parties come to the table at the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) - mediated talks in Addis Ababa ready to engage in multi-stakeholder political negotiations. These talks are critical to resolving the conflict and moving forward on the commitment to form a transitional government as the Government of South Sudan and the opposition agreed to on June 10.
The killing of innocent humanitarian workers who risked their lives to provide desperately needed aid at time when 3.9 million South Sudanese are facing emergency food insecurity from a man-made crisis is simply appalling. The Government of South Sudan has a responsibility to protect humanitarian workers, and ensure its forces comply with repeated government commitments to facilitate humanitarian assistance.
In the face of the worsening security and humanitarian situation, it is more urgent than ever that both parties come to the table at the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) - mediated talks in Addis Ababa ready to engage in multi-stakeholder political negotiations. These talks are critical to resolving the conflict and moving forward on the commitment to form a transitional government as the Government of South Sudan and the opposition agreed to on June 10.
Friday, July 25, 2014
SECRETARY KERRY SAYS SOUTH SUDAN FACES WIDESPREAD STARVATION
FROM: U.S. STATE DEPARTMENT
John Kerry
Secretary of State
Washington, DC
July 25, 2014
South Sudan now faces the worst food security crisis in the world. Violence has forced over 1.5 million people from their homes since mid-December, while more than 50,000 children under the age of five are at risk of dying from malnutrition this year. This is not a crisis caused by drought or flood: it is a calamity created by conflict. Unless the fighting ends and a peace agreement is concluded, the number of those at risk of starvation -- now as many as 3.9 million people, fully one-third of the population – will reach even more catastrophic levels.
South Sudan's leaders need to make choices and they need to make them now if they're going to pull their country back from the brink of famine. In the last months, I've traveled to Juba and Ethiopia to press on the cease-fire. I've had call after call with both leaders in South Sudan, pressing them to work closely with regional partners in support of mediation efforts. The United States has spoken out against ongoing fighting, obstruction of humanitarian access and failures to resolve the conflict.
But in the end, the leaders have to make decisions. President Salva Kiir and former Vice President Riek Machar share responsibility for triggering this man-made crisis and they share responsibility for ending it. I call on them to end the fighting immediately and negotiate in good faith under the auspices of the Intergovernmental Authority on Development.
The Government of South Sudan and the opposition must put the safety and wellbeing of the South Sudanese people first by immediately implementing the Cessation of Hostilities Agreement, ensuring the security of humanitarian workers and goods, and dismantling unofficial checkpoints that impede the delivery of aid. International and South Sudanese humanitarian workers have saved lives at great personal risk. They must be able to do their jobs without the threat of violence, informal “taxation” or other arbitrary impediments.
The United States remains committed to the people of South Sudan and has provided more than $456 million in humanitarian aid this year alone. We call on fellow donor countries to make additional contributions. The people of South Sudan deserve the opportunity to begin rebuilding their country, and to develop the national and local institutions they need to put South Sudan on a path towards stability.
Monday, May 19, 2014
NSC SPOKESPERSON'S STATEMENT ON ASSISTANCE TO SOUTH SUDAN
FROM: THE WHITE HOUSE
Statement by NSC Spokesperson Caitlin Hayden on Additional Humanitarian Assistance for South Sudan
,In advance of tomorrow’s South Sudan pledging conference in Oslo, Norway, today the President authorized the use of up to $50 million in assistance from the U.S. Emergency Refugee and Migration Assistance Fund to help address urgent humanitarian needs resulting from the crisis in South Sudan. The $50 million will support the UN High Commission for Refugees and its partners as they urgently expand assistance to help the more than 300,000 refugees that have crossed into Ethiopia, Kenya, Sudan, and Uganda, as well as to provide critical household items, shelter support, and protection services to internally displaced persons in South Sudan.
Months of conflict between the Government of South Sudan and rebel forces have exacted a terrible toll on the people of South Sudan. More than 1.3 million people have been displaced, and the country is now at risk of famine unless humanitarian agencies are able to scale up relief efforts and access those in need. Even as we continue our intensive effort to end the violence, we are working to meet the humanitarian needs of the South Sudanese people. The $50 million in additional Emergency Refugee and Assistance Funds the President authorized today will form part of a package of nearly $300 million in additional assistance the U.S. delegation will formally pledge tomorrow in Oslo, bringing total U.S. humanitarian assistance since the start of the conflict in December 2013 to approximately $433.6 million.
Wednesday, May 7, 2014
REMARKS BY SECRETARY KERRY AND EU HIGH REPRESENTATIVE LADY ASHTON
FROM: U.S. STATE DEPARTMENT
Remarks With EU High Representative Lady Catherine Ashton After Their Meeting
Remarks
John Kerry
Secretary of State
Treaty Room
Washington, DC
May 6, 2014
SECRETARY KERRY: Well, good afternoon, everybody. I am very pleased, as always, to welcome my very good friend and colleague in these endeavors, the EU High Representative Cathy Ashton back here to Washington. I’m also personally happy to be back in Washington – (laughter) – after a trip through Africa that has left us with a very long to-do list, which we’re already working on.
Lady Ashton and I just covered a lot of ground, but since we’re in agreement on so much of it, we were able to cover it quite quickly. We discussed, most importantly, our shared strategy of using the tools of diplomacy in order to reduce the conflicts that are threatening Europe, Africa, the Middle East, and other parts of the world, but particularly there.
Let me begin with Ukraine. In the weeks since Lady Ashton and I met in Geneva, along with the Ukrainian foreign minister and the Russian foreign minister, we have been, it is fair to say, nothing less than disappointed to see Russia to fail to live up to the very plain and simple, easy-to-interpret commitments that were made in Geneva. And I’ll reiterate: The agreement that we made in Geneva, it really isn’t vague and it’s not open to some loose interpretation. It was simple, it was specific, and it outlined concrete steps that all of the parties had to take. Ukraine’s government, literally before the ink was dry, started to implement on that agreement. And they have held up their end of the bargain.
Ukraine has shown remarkable restraint. Almost immediately coming out of that meeting in Geneva, they ordered a cessation of any kind of counterterrorism activity, any effort to remove people from buildings based on the notion that both sides were going to work to bring people out of those buildings. And the fact is that they have been committed in Kyiv to trying to move their country forward through nonviolence, through constitutional reform, through dialogue, and by reaching out to the disaffected parts of Ukraine.
We also are very concerned about efforts of pro-Russian separatists in Donetsk, in Luhansk to organize, frankly, a contrived, bogus independence referendum on May 11th. We flatly reject this illegal effort to further divide Ukraine, and its pursuit will create even more problems in the effort to try to de-escalate the situation. This is really the Crimea playbook all over again, and no civilized nation is going to recognize the results of such a bogus effort.
As President Obama has made clear, if Russian elements continue to sabotage the democratic process and prevent Ukraine from holding a free and fair election 19 days from now on the 25th, then we stand ready to implement additional sanctions. And the “we” is Europe and the United States together. I know the European Union is strong in its commitment to do this, and I think the high representative will address meetings that are shortly going to be held next week in furtherance of our common goals here.
We are not going to sit idly by while Russian elements fan the flames of instability, instead of fulfilling the commitments that we made. Look, we came together, and we came together in a real spirit of trying to de-escalate. And we weren’t playing a game. We laid down some very specific steps that could be taken, and immediately, the Government of Ukraine, in good faith, undertook to implement those steps, including removing barricades from the Maidan in Kyiv, removing people from buildings, as well as reaching out to make clear to the people of Ukraine how decentralization could take place to give more power to those people in places that were disaffected. Regrettably, that was not met with reciprocity, and reciprocity is one of the things that we discussed very clearly in Geneva.
I must add also that it’s very hard to reconcile that Russia is now making the argument that Ukraine ought to reduce – not have an election or postpone an election because of the violence that’s taking place, but Russia is full, whole-hog behind having an election in Syria where there is far worse violence. Reconcile that one for us, please.
So the choice is really Russia’s. The United States, the EU, and our allies have made our choice very, very clear: We are going to stand together united not just in support of Ukraine, but united in support of de-escalating; united in support of a peaceful, diplomatic solution; united in recognition that, yes, there are historic and cultural and other ties between Russia and Ukraine, but the way to assert them is at the diplomatic negotiating table, not at the end of a gun. And we believe that we will also stand together in the effort to try to de-escalate this situation.
Next week, I will meet in London with our European counterparts in order to discuss what the appropriate next steps will be.
I also want to underscore that Lady Ashton and I applaud the commitment and the courage of the monitors of the OSCE. We’re deeply appreciative of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, who have put themselves in harm’s way, not on one side or the other, but on the side of a peaceful resolution, on the side of de-escalation. And they have tried to enforce compliance of the Russian-backed forces to ensure that there is a fair and reasonable approach to defining the future for all of the people of Ukraine.
We believe that the OSCE can now play an enhanced role, and right now there are efforts taking place. I talked yesterday with the OSCE chairman, President Burkhalter of Switzerland, and he is tomorrow going to be traveling to meet with President Putin. Today there were meetings. I talked yesterday also with the foreign minister of Germany, Frank Steinmeier. He today met with Foreign Minister Lavrov in Vienna, and there are further discussions taking place. I will talk with him in an hour or two from now. So there’s a lot of energy being expended to try to see if we can find a reasonable way forward here. And we support the efforts very much of this kind of diplomacy to help the Ukrainians restore law and order and improve the environment for free and fair elections on May 25th.
And before I invite our honored guest to offer her thoughts here, I just want to briefly mention a couple of other topics that we discussed very quickly this afternoon: South Sudan, Nigeria, and Iran.
First on South Sudan, the cessation of hostilities agreement that was signed in January by the South Sudanese Government and the opposition has obviously not been upheld. And the recent attacks by the South Sudanese Government and the anti-government forces, both of them, are absolutely unacceptable, and the United States condemns them in the strongest terms.
I talked this morning with Prime Minister Hailemariam of Ethiopia, and he has been directly in touch with Riek Machar, who tells him that he will come to a meeting though they’re working on the precise date and hope to have something to announce shortly. He has also talked to President Kiir, and President Kiir has, in fact, committed absolutely to be there and to come. And we’re very hopeful that that can be the beginning of a dialogue, and we will have participants there to assist in that process.
As President Obama has made clear, however, we will hold accountable those who have stood in the way of a peace plan. And I’ve said as much directly to President Kiir and to former Vice President Riek Machar when I was there this past weekend. So today, the United States will announce sanctions on two individuals responsible for violating the cessation of hostilities agreement, individuals responsible for perpetrating unthinkable violence against civilians. The first is the commander of the South Sudanese Government’s Presidential Guard Forces Marial Chanuong, and he has led violent attacks against civilians in Juba. And that will – further details will be announced later regarding that. The second, Peter Gadet, who led anti-government forces in the April 17th attack on Bentiu that left more than 200 civilians dead.
And we will do our utmost to prevent South Sudan from plunging back into the violence and despair that tore that country apart for so long. We will continue to stand with the people of South Sudan who call for peace and who recognize that the only way to resolve this conflict is through a political dialogue.
Secondly, on Nigeria: Today I spoke with President Goodluck Jonathan on behalf of President Obama and offered – on behalf of President Obama offered America’s support for Nigeria in their response to this crisis. Our embassy in Abuja is prepared to form a coordination cell that could provide expertise on intelligence, investigations, and hostage negotiations, and to help facilitate information-sharing and victim assistance. And President – the President was – President Goodluck Jonathan was very happy to receive this offer and ready to move on it immediately, and we are immediately engaging in order to implement this. We remain deeply concerned about the welfare of these young girls, and we want to provide whatever assistance is possible in order to help for their safe return to their families.
And finally, Lady Ashton and I discussed – I think you see the breadth of the things that we’re talking about. You get a sense of the tremendous cooperation between the EU and the United States, and particularly between Cathy Ashton and myself, for which we are very, very grateful. And we are extremely grateful for her stewardship of the important negotiations that are taking place with Iran on the nuclear program, on a comprehensive – on the search for a comprehensive solution to the challenge of that program.
We – Lady Ashton and our political directors will meet again in Vienna next week. And as we try to seize this diplomatic moment and make our allies and ourselves safer, Iran obviously has to make some very tough decisions. We remain firm in our goals. They don’t vary. Iran must not obtain a nuclear weapon, and it must ensure it has a peaceful nuclear program. And as I’ve said many times, we continue to believe that no deal is better than a bad deal.
Let me close by extending to Lady Ashton early greetings for Europe Day, which falls this Friday. It’s a holiday that recalls and renews the EU’s vision for a united, peaceful, stable, and democratic Europe, and the United States will stand side by side with Europe as it strives to live up to that vision and to those high ideals. Lady Ashton, thanks for being with us.
HIGH REPRESENTATIVE ASHTON: Thank you. Thank you very much, Secretary Kerry, or John, as I would prefer. Thank you for your good wishes for Europe Day. I held a reception in New York last night, and it was my great pleasure to be able to see the Empire State Building lit up in the colors of the European Union of blue and yellow. It is a recognition of this incredibly important transatlantic partnership that every nation of the European Union values so highly, and for which I thank you, your predecessors, and all of your colleagues for the work that has gone on to develop it to the point where I think we are very much joined up in our thinking.
As you’ve said, we’ve talked about a range of issues. We talk a lot in between these meetings, so we cover a huge number of current concerns. And I will just pick up on the back of some of this news. You’ve said two or three of them, of which Ukraine is inevitably the highest on our agenda, and the latest news of the great concern that we have from the illegal actions by armed separatist groups is, of course, at the foremost of our attention. We want to see Russia join in in the call to see an immediate end to these actions, and that is very much, as you’ve said, in line with the discussions we had in Geneva, where we talked practically for seven hours. We talked about what this meant. There was no vagueness. There was absolute clarity in what we were trying to do – to try and find ways to begin the de-escalation. And we will continue, as the European Union, to engage fully in seeking a political solution and to stay fully behind what we said in Geneva and to find ways that we can see the implementation done by everyone.
We know, too, that Ukraine has the right to defend its territorial integrity. We understand the international obligations that it has, and we work closely with them. And as you have indicated, they have done a lot from the beginning of leaving Geneva at the end of that day to try and implement what was agreed.
I pay tribute, like you, to the OSCE, and I join the chief monitor of the special mission, who’s called upon all sides to exercise maximum restraint, to avoid bloodshed, and to solve differences peacefully. You all know that on the 28th of April we took the decision to extend the number of people subject to targeted sanctions for actions that undermine Ukraine’s territorial integrity, sovereignty, and independence. Any further steps that destabilize the situation in Ukraine would lead to additional and far-reaching consequences for our relations in a broad range of areas.
Like you, too, we are focused on the elections and the importance of free and fair presidential elections. This is a really important step in the stabilization of Ukraine. It’s about democracy. It’s an opportunity, too, for there to be a legitimate and broad debate on the future of Ukraine and to engage with people who do want to talk about how that future should be – peacefully working together, and to take this opportunity to be able to do that. We, of course, will continue as well with our assistance package, which, as you know, will bring in overall support of about 11 billion euros over time.
I want, as well, to mention the terrible escalation of violence in South Sudan and to pay tribute to your visit. I already know from our special representatives in the region and from people from the countries concerned that your visit was extremely timely and your efforts were very well recognized. So may I pay tribute to you for that, as well as many, many other things.
I’m worried that this country is on the brink of what could be a civil war, ethnically motivated. And the prospects of famine and the humanitarian disaster – they’re really looming large now, so we need to work together. We need to work to ensure that the leaders in South Sudan really do take the action that you’ve identified they need to. And when the meeting takes place on Friday, they really have got to now try and put aside personal differences and try and change the atmosphere and to try and prevent any further offenses and to respect the cessation of hostilities.
We’re actively considering the targeted sanctions that you’ve described. As you know, the Foreign Affairs Council, we’re meeting on Monday, and that’s the forum where I am president to try and look at all of these issues and see how we go forward. So we need to work very closely in good cooperation with you and with others and to make sure that we put as much energy as possible into trying to prevent what, as I said, could be a disaster.
Like you, our thoughts are with the parents of the Nigerian girls and with the girls themselves. These are the future of the country. They are teachers, dancers, politicians. They are scientists; they are mothers. They are women in the making, who have a right to play their full part in their society. And what has happened to them is devastating for all of us, and we must do, like you, everything possible to try and reunite them with their families and to prevent this ever, ever happening again.
But I want to end, if I might, by also reiterating my full support for everything that you have done in the Middle East. Your efforts are not, by any means, over yet. I know that. And I know that this has been a difficult time. But I do think that you have made tremendous progress and the European Union stands absolutely beside you as you continue your efforts and remains committed to supporting you in every way possible.
My final thought is on Iran. We will, of course, next week try and take this process forward. And we’re all interested in making sure that if we can get an agreement it’s the best agreement.
SECRETARY KERRY: Thank you, Cathy.
HIGH REPRESENTATIVE ASHTON: We always hug. There’s always a hug. (Laughter.)
MS. PSAKI: The first question will be from Andrea Mitchell of NBC News.
QUESTION: Thank you very much, Mr. Secretary, Lady Ashton. On Nigeria first, why has it taken so long to mobilize an American effort? We understand that President Jonathan today said he is welcoming the help, that there was no invitation before this, and if you understand that to mean that you can now act. But it will take a while to organize this cell in the Embassy. Why, given our extraordinary abilities with surveillance, with detection, did not the United States act sooner with other allies? It’s understood that some of these girls may have been taken across borders. There is an international issue. They are listed as a terror organization, Boko Haram, on the State Department list. It seems inconceivable to people around the world that we could not act sooner where lives are at stake. And how long now will it take to act?
And if I could ask you about Benghazi, because this is our first opportunity, sir. First of all, your response to Chairman Issa’s committee’s subpoena for you to appear, we understand that on May 21st, the date that you were ordered to appear, that you are supposed to be traveling, previously scheduled, in Mexico. Will you now organize another day to appear? How do you feel about being subpoenaed rather than being invited, as would have been the normal protocol? And what is your response to the committee’s charge that the State Department, under your watch as well, has dragged its feet on being forthcoming with all of the demands for documents?
And if I could ask Lady Ashton, finally, given the conversations between President Obama and Chancellor Merkel last week, can the international community really wait to see whether the sectoral sanctions should be imposed? It does seem as though Vladimir Putin and his supporters, these separatists, are not changing their policy and are not responding even to the damage that has been done, whatever it has been, to their economies.
Thank you all so very much.
SECRETARY KERRY: The last question --
QUESTION: Well, you can --
HIGH REPRESENTATIVE ASHTON: He’ll answer it as well.
SECRETARY KERRY: No, no, no. I want her to answer it. I thought it was for her.
QUESTION: Yes, for both, but --
SECRETARY KERRY: So – well, give me the last question again of the four questions I got on here.
QUESTION: Sorry. The last question is: Why wait to impose tougher sanctions given that Vladimir Putin has shown no sign of desisting despite the sanctions that have already been imposed? But I think first --
SECRETARY KERRY: Well --
QUESTION: -- Nigeria and Benghazi.
SECRETARY KERRY: All right, sure. Well, let me speak to Nigeria. First of all, we have been in touch from day one, and our Embassy has been engaged and we have been engaged. But the government had its own set of strategies, if you will, in the beginning. And you can offer and talk, but you can’t do if a government has its own sense of how it’s proceeding. I think now the complications that have arisen have convinced everybody that there needs to be a greater effort, and it will begin immediately. I mean literally immediately. We are in touch, our Embassy is in touch. We’ve been talking with AFRICOM, we’ve been talking with the various entities, and I think you’re going to see a very, very rapid response.
QUESTION: We have satellites, though, surveillance?
SECRETARY KERRY: I understand. Yeah, we do, but it depends where they are and what they’re looking at on any given day. And so there are options, and I can assure you – I think the White House will have more to say about what we are going to be doing, and I’ll let them speak for that. But the simple answer is we’re going to do everything in our power to able to be helpful. And I’m going to see the President in a little while this afternoon. I think the President may or may not have something to say about this in the near term.
And let’s just – the important thing is that we have put everything on the table. We’re going to send a team, and it’ll be a combined team ready to work. But you have to have a host country that’s ready to receive and work with you in any situation, and we’re prepared to work.
On the issue of Benghazi, I served 29 years in the United States Senate, 28-plus. And I was chairman of a major committee, and I don’t think I ever issued a subpoena to somebody that I hadn’t first invited to come and speak. I think this sort of speaks for itself, frankly.
We have had more than, I think, 50 briefings. There have been in the double digits of hearings. We’ve delivered over 25,000 documents. And the fact is that documents require a legal process to go through for examination of executive privilege or other kinds of – classified or other kinds of things that may or may not be in them. That’s just not – it doesn’t happen automatically. But I’ve guaranteed that we would cooperate in every single way. We have, and I will, and the Department will. That’s our obligation. And of course, we will. But I think everybody needs to take a hard look at – and sort of measure what’s been already put out there versus where this effort is going. And you see a very partisan response on the Hill with respect to it.
I also think there’s an issue of the requisite body figuring out who has jurisdiction over this, from what I understand. There are still some questions as to who is going to do what. So we’ll respond, because we have absolutely nothing to hide whatsoever, and I look forward to complying, whatever responsibilities we have.
QUESTION: Do you intend to --
SECRETARY KERRY: With respect to – I’ll comply with whatever responsibilities we have. And with respect to the question of tougher sanctions and sanctions, what we are doing is having a major impact. Nobody should doubt that. The bonds in Russia are already just above junk bonds in categorization, and they’ve had to postpone a number of sales of bonds. The economy is already on the downward decline. The IMF has already declared that it’s in recession. Their growth was going to be about 1.3 percent; it’s now prospected to be perhaps .1 or 2 percent, minimal, and we have only yet begun, if we have to. And I think there’s no question. But it is important for the United States and Europe to try to move together in this. We believe that. And so that requires a certain element of preparation, coordination. You have to do the right paperwork, the right examination. You have to pull your teams together. And we are proceeding, I think, in a very effective and authoritative way.
We’ve made it very clear – President Obama and Chancellor Merkel had a meeting the other day. And they said clearly that if there are interference or continued interference, if there is continued interference with respect to the election and election process, there will be more sanctions that this time will start to bite into the sectors of the economy. And those become even more compelling than what has been put on the table to this point.
But obviously, when you’re trying to keep a door open to be able to find some kind of a diplomatic solution, when the other party says they’re willing to come to the table and actually engage in that discussion, it seems to me reasonable to try to do that. And I think most people in most places want a responsible government, not to escalate to the point of creating an inevitable confrontation, but rather to find out if there’s a way to be able to find that diplomatic solution. That’s what diplomacy is about. There’s no question about our ability, when we want to, to be able to put sanctions in place that are even more biting than what we have today. But you have to ask yourself if the price has been (inaudible) ahead of time, whether or not that invites something further that you don’t want to have happen.
So there’s a delicate mix here, and I think President Obama has calibrated this extremely effectively. It’s having a biting effect, and we will continue to proceed in unity with our European allies to do what we think has the greatest impact and the most effect.
HIGH REPRESENTATIVE ASHTON: I mean, I have nothing much more to add, except to say that from the perspective of what the European Union is doing, it is this desire to see a way to find a method of de-escalation. And that was what Geneva was about. It’s why we put on hold measures that we were considering, because that’s, as you said, is what you do. When we saw that we were not getting the results from Geneva, we pressed the start button again and we’ve continued with those measures. And we’re looking at all of the possibilities. It’s a mix of things that you want to do to try and create the circumstances that will lead to the most important thing, which is stopping the violence, for people to stop occupying the buildings, and to get the kind of discussion, debate, and democratic approach that will lead Ukraine into its future. And so you have to consider all of the ways in which that can be done.
I will be bringing together the 28 foreign ministers on Monday. They will be discussing all of the elements of that approach, working very closely with our colleagues in the United States, in order to see how we can best do that. And it’s why countries like Germany, like others, obviously, engaging and talking as well as looking at what we might do as a coordinated effort, and I really hope that we’re successful in that.
MS. PSAKI: The next question will be from Gero Schliess from Deutsche Welle, and I’m sure I butchered that, but go ahead.
QUESTION: Gero Schliess, Gero Schliess, thank you. First part also on Ukraine: Some people have the impression that for the U.S. sanctions – or, let’s say, punishment or isolation of Mr. Putin is the most important goal. And I have a perception that Europe seems to be reluctant to pursue this policy. And my question to both of you is: We have (inaudible) that Putin is a problem, but in what respect could he be also part of a solution? And today, did you discuss the option of a neutral Ukraine that would possibly satisfy Putin and might be acceptable for the Western countries?
And the second part of my question goes – is about Syria. As Syrian delegation of – Syrian opposition is in D.C. to talk to the Secretary of State, Mr. Kerry, your Administration has granted the U.S. offices of Syrian National Coalition diplomatic status. Does this signal that the U.S. are getting more actively involved in the civil war, including providing the rebels with heavy weaponry?
And to you, Lady Ashton, would the European Union also grant diplomatic status to the Syrian National Coalition?
HIGH REPRESENTATIVE ASHTON: Should I start?
SECRETARY KERRY: Go ahead, please.
HIGH REPRESENTATIVE ASHTON: On Ukraine, it’s for the people of Ukraine to decide what Ukraine is and will be, and they will consider very carefully where they sit in the world. I’ve said whenever I visited Ukraine, when I met with the then-President Yanukovych and in more recent times, that it’s not about a competition between Europe and Russia for a nation, that Ukraine will want strong and good economic links with Russia. And we recognize that that’s important. This is never and never should be about this idea of a competition.
For us, it’s always about trying to find now the way forward, as I’ve already indicated, to find the formula that’s going to help to de-escalate the situation, to talk with everybody and to keep all the doors open while being very clear that the situation cannot continue as it is.
On Syria, I’ll answer very briefly, the European Union of itself does not do diplomatic relations with anyone. It’s individual member states who do that.
QUESTION: And may I ask, how far could Putin be part of a solution concerning the Ukraine crisis?
HIGH REPRESENTATIVE ASHTON: Well, President Putin is president of Russia, and Russia is playing a role at the moment. So the question for Russia is: If you take what I’ve just said about the fact that Ukraine as a nation needs to have a good relationship with all of its neighbors, then you need to start looking at how, from Russia’s perspective, they’re going to define that. And defining that for me is about strong economic links. Yes, there are strong historical links, and yes, there needs to be a way in which they can be peacefully co-existing side by side. And I hope that President Putin might consider that that is the way forward.
SECRETARY KERRY: With respect to your question on President Putin, there’s no observer of Russia, there is no one engaged in diplomacy today who doesn’t understand that President Putin is calling the shots in Russia, that a very narrow group of people around him are advising him in one way or the other. But President Putin is almost exclusively, if not exclusively calling the shots.
There is no specific effort by the United States of America to somehow single him out other than to respond to the fact that in his name, Russia has deployed its forces, engaged in direct activities involved first in Crimea, now in east and south of Ukraine, in ways that are destabilizing that country, and still has 40,000-plus or so troops lined up on the border in a place that it didn’t have them before they began to move into Crimea.
Now, what we are trying to do is not targeted on him because we have some personal thing or something about him. It’s because he’s making decisions that are adversely affecting the region and the rights of the people of Ukraine to choose their future and to have their sovereignty respected. We have only one interest in this. That is the stability and respect for Ukraine, its integrity and its sovereignty, and the opportunity of the people of Ukraine to choose their future. That’s our interest. And we are not seeking alignment; we’re not seeking anything except this universal value that is respected around the world for the right of people to not be bludgeoned at the butt of a gun, or with military invasion, to be told what to do.
Now, we believe that it’s appropriate for us to respond in response to the legitimate demands of a government that was voted on even by the former supporters of President Yanukovych, who deserted the country of his own free will, and made a decision not to live up to the agreement that he signed back in February. And the parliament, with his own party’s support, voted him out and provided for an interim government and called for elections. Now, what could be more sensible than to allow this country under siege to be able to have an election where they give legitimacy to a new government by having all of the people be able to vote? That’s all people are looking for here. It seems to me that it shouldn’t be so complicated for Russia to be able to engage in that process.
And we respect that Russia has a long historical connection to Ukraine, and that Kyiv is the home – the birthplace of Russian religion, and that wars of liberation have been fought on that territory. And we understand the connection and the strong feelings about protection of people who – Russian-speaking and so forth. We’re not – nobody’s arguing against that, though. The fact is that the interim government of Ukraine is prepared to respect the Russian language, prepared to respect the greater autonomy for people in that region, to give them – frankly, the people – the Government of Ukraine has offered to give the people in south and east Ukraine more power over their own lives on an everyday basis than Russia gives any individual state or province in Russia. That’s a fact.
And so the answer is that what we think is important here is that the rights of the people be respected. And Lady Ashton’s correct: They have to choose their future. But they have said they are not seeking alignment. They’ve said they’re not looking for NATO membership. And NATO and those of us who are members have said we’re prepared to respect the choice of the interim government and whatever future government of Ukraine there is.
Final comment: We have said again and again to the Russians – and I hope they hear it again today – we are not seeking for a Ukraine that belongs to some other part of the world, but only – we want one that just belongs to Ukraine. And we’re not seeking one that is a pawn between East and West. We’d like Ukraine to be a bridge between East and West. And we certainly agree with President Putin’s vision that we could have an economic arrangement that goes from Vladivostok to Lisbon that involves everybody in a major market where everybody benefits.
So there’s more to talk about than unfortunately some of the heated rhetoric has given people a sense of. And our hope is that – that’s why we pursue these discussions, is to see if we can’t find a way to make those interests meet the moment and find a way forward that de-escalates this confrontation.
MS. PSAKI: Thanks, everyone.
SECRETARY KERRY: Oh, and Syria. I didn’t answer Syria. On Syria, we have not recognized the SOC. We’ve given them diplomatic status to be able to come here, but because we have previously said that they are the legitimate representative. But we have not moved to create a diplomatic – to recognize them or create a diplomatic situation. But we’re hopeful that, again, there also, we can find a way forward that deals with this extraordinary violence that is literally destroying the country of Syria. And our hope is that we could have a reasonable way forward to do that. Thank you. Thank you all.
Lady Ashton and I just covered a lot of ground, but since we’re in agreement on so much of it, we were able to cover it quite quickly. We discussed, most importantly, our shared strategy of using the tools of diplomacy in order to reduce the conflicts that are threatening Europe, Africa, the Middle East, and other parts of the world, but particularly there.
Let me begin with Ukraine. In the weeks since Lady Ashton and I met in Geneva, along with the Ukrainian foreign minister and the Russian foreign minister, we have been, it is fair to say, nothing less than disappointed to see Russia to fail to live up to the very plain and simple, easy-to-interpret commitments that were made in Geneva. And I’ll reiterate: The agreement that we made in Geneva, it really isn’t vague and it’s not open to some loose interpretation. It was simple, it was specific, and it outlined concrete steps that all of the parties had to take. Ukraine’s government, literally before the ink was dry, started to implement on that agreement. And they have held up their end of the bargain.
Ukraine has shown remarkable restraint. Almost immediately coming out of that meeting in Geneva, they ordered a cessation of any kind of counterterrorism activity, any effort to remove people from buildings based on the notion that both sides were going to work to bring people out of those buildings. And the fact is that they have been committed in Kyiv to trying to move their country forward through nonviolence, through constitutional reform, through dialogue, and by reaching out to the disaffected parts of Ukraine.
We also are very concerned about efforts of pro-Russian separatists in Donetsk, in Luhansk to organize, frankly, a contrived, bogus independence referendum on May 11th. We flatly reject this illegal effort to further divide Ukraine, and its pursuit will create even more problems in the effort to try to de-escalate the situation. This is really the Crimea playbook all over again, and no civilized nation is going to recognize the results of such a bogus effort.
As President Obama has made clear, if Russian elements continue to sabotage the democratic process and prevent Ukraine from holding a free and fair election 19 days from now on the 25th, then we stand ready to implement additional sanctions. And the “we” is Europe and the United States together. I know the European Union is strong in its commitment to do this, and I think the high representative will address meetings that are shortly going to be held next week in furtherance of our common goals here.
We are not going to sit idly by while Russian elements fan the flames of instability, instead of fulfilling the commitments that we made. Look, we came together, and we came together in a real spirit of trying to de-escalate. And we weren’t playing a game. We laid down some very specific steps that could be taken, and immediately, the Government of Ukraine, in good faith, undertook to implement those steps, including removing barricades from the Maidan in Kyiv, removing people from buildings, as well as reaching out to make clear to the people of Ukraine how decentralization could take place to give more power to those people in places that were disaffected. Regrettably, that was not met with reciprocity, and reciprocity is one of the things that we discussed very clearly in Geneva.
I must add also that it’s very hard to reconcile that Russia is now making the argument that Ukraine ought to reduce – not have an election or postpone an election because of the violence that’s taking place, but Russia is full, whole-hog behind having an election in Syria where there is far worse violence. Reconcile that one for us, please.
So the choice is really Russia’s. The United States, the EU, and our allies have made our choice very, very clear: We are going to stand together united not just in support of Ukraine, but united in support of de-escalating; united in support of a peaceful, diplomatic solution; united in recognition that, yes, there are historic and cultural and other ties between Russia and Ukraine, but the way to assert them is at the diplomatic negotiating table, not at the end of a gun. And we believe that we will also stand together in the effort to try to de-escalate this situation.
Next week, I will meet in London with our European counterparts in order to discuss what the appropriate next steps will be.
I also want to underscore that Lady Ashton and I applaud the commitment and the courage of the monitors of the OSCE. We’re deeply appreciative of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, who have put themselves in harm’s way, not on one side or the other, but on the side of a peaceful resolution, on the side of de-escalation. And they have tried to enforce compliance of the Russian-backed forces to ensure that there is a fair and reasonable approach to defining the future for all of the people of Ukraine.
We believe that the OSCE can now play an enhanced role, and right now there are efforts taking place. I talked yesterday with the OSCE chairman, President Burkhalter of Switzerland, and he is tomorrow going to be traveling to meet with President Putin. Today there were meetings. I talked yesterday also with the foreign minister of Germany, Frank Steinmeier. He today met with Foreign Minister Lavrov in Vienna, and there are further discussions taking place. I will talk with him in an hour or two from now. So there’s a lot of energy being expended to try to see if we can find a reasonable way forward here. And we support the efforts very much of this kind of diplomacy to help the Ukrainians restore law and order and improve the environment for free and fair elections on May 25th.
And before I invite our honored guest to offer her thoughts here, I just want to briefly mention a couple of other topics that we discussed very quickly this afternoon: South Sudan, Nigeria, and Iran.
First on South Sudan, the cessation of hostilities agreement that was signed in January by the South Sudanese Government and the opposition has obviously not been upheld. And the recent attacks by the South Sudanese Government and the anti-government forces, both of them, are absolutely unacceptable, and the United States condemns them in the strongest terms.
I talked this morning with Prime Minister Hailemariam of Ethiopia, and he has been directly in touch with Riek Machar, who tells him that he will come to a meeting though they’re working on the precise date and hope to have something to announce shortly. He has also talked to President Kiir, and President Kiir has, in fact, committed absolutely to be there and to come. And we’re very hopeful that that can be the beginning of a dialogue, and we will have participants there to assist in that process.
As President Obama has made clear, however, we will hold accountable those who have stood in the way of a peace plan. And I’ve said as much directly to President Kiir and to former Vice President Riek Machar when I was there this past weekend. So today, the United States will announce sanctions on two individuals responsible for violating the cessation of hostilities agreement, individuals responsible for perpetrating unthinkable violence against civilians. The first is the commander of the South Sudanese Government’s Presidential Guard Forces Marial Chanuong, and he has led violent attacks against civilians in Juba. And that will – further details will be announced later regarding that. The second, Peter Gadet, who led anti-government forces in the April 17th attack on Bentiu that left more than 200 civilians dead.
And we will do our utmost to prevent South Sudan from plunging back into the violence and despair that tore that country apart for so long. We will continue to stand with the people of South Sudan who call for peace and who recognize that the only way to resolve this conflict is through a political dialogue.
Secondly, on Nigeria: Today I spoke with President Goodluck Jonathan on behalf of President Obama and offered – on behalf of President Obama offered America’s support for Nigeria in their response to this crisis. Our embassy in Abuja is prepared to form a coordination cell that could provide expertise on intelligence, investigations, and hostage negotiations, and to help facilitate information-sharing and victim assistance. And President – the President was – President Goodluck Jonathan was very happy to receive this offer and ready to move on it immediately, and we are immediately engaging in order to implement this. We remain deeply concerned about the welfare of these young girls, and we want to provide whatever assistance is possible in order to help for their safe return to their families.
And finally, Lady Ashton and I discussed – I think you see the breadth of the things that we’re talking about. You get a sense of the tremendous cooperation between the EU and the United States, and particularly between Cathy Ashton and myself, for which we are very, very grateful. And we are extremely grateful for her stewardship of the important negotiations that are taking place with Iran on the nuclear program, on a comprehensive – on the search for a comprehensive solution to the challenge of that program.
We – Lady Ashton and our political directors will meet again in Vienna next week. And as we try to seize this diplomatic moment and make our allies and ourselves safer, Iran obviously has to make some very tough decisions. We remain firm in our goals. They don’t vary. Iran must not obtain a nuclear weapon, and it must ensure it has a peaceful nuclear program. And as I’ve said many times, we continue to believe that no deal is better than a bad deal.
Let me close by extending to Lady Ashton early greetings for Europe Day, which falls this Friday. It’s a holiday that recalls and renews the EU’s vision for a united, peaceful, stable, and democratic Europe, and the United States will stand side by side with Europe as it strives to live up to that vision and to those high ideals. Lady Ashton, thanks for being with us.
HIGH REPRESENTATIVE ASHTON: Thank you. Thank you very much, Secretary Kerry, or John, as I would prefer. Thank you for your good wishes for Europe Day. I held a reception in New York last night, and it was my great pleasure to be able to see the Empire State Building lit up in the colors of the European Union of blue and yellow. It is a recognition of this incredibly important transatlantic partnership that every nation of the European Union values so highly, and for which I thank you, your predecessors, and all of your colleagues for the work that has gone on to develop it to the point where I think we are very much joined up in our thinking.
As you’ve said, we’ve talked about a range of issues. We talk a lot in between these meetings, so we cover a huge number of current concerns. And I will just pick up on the back of some of this news. You’ve said two or three of them, of which Ukraine is inevitably the highest on our agenda, and the latest news of the great concern that we have from the illegal actions by armed separatist groups is, of course, at the foremost of our attention. We want to see Russia join in in the call to see an immediate end to these actions, and that is very much, as you’ve said, in line with the discussions we had in Geneva, where we talked practically for seven hours. We talked about what this meant. There was no vagueness. There was absolute clarity in what we were trying to do – to try and find ways to begin the de-escalation. And we will continue, as the European Union, to engage fully in seeking a political solution and to stay fully behind what we said in Geneva and to find ways that we can see the implementation done by everyone.
We know, too, that Ukraine has the right to defend its territorial integrity. We understand the international obligations that it has, and we work closely with them. And as you have indicated, they have done a lot from the beginning of leaving Geneva at the end of that day to try and implement what was agreed.
I pay tribute, like you, to the OSCE, and I join the chief monitor of the special mission, who’s called upon all sides to exercise maximum restraint, to avoid bloodshed, and to solve differences peacefully. You all know that on the 28th of April we took the decision to extend the number of people subject to targeted sanctions for actions that undermine Ukraine’s territorial integrity, sovereignty, and independence. Any further steps that destabilize the situation in Ukraine would lead to additional and far-reaching consequences for our relations in a broad range of areas.
Like you, too, we are focused on the elections and the importance of free and fair presidential elections. This is a really important step in the stabilization of Ukraine. It’s about democracy. It’s an opportunity, too, for there to be a legitimate and broad debate on the future of Ukraine and to engage with people who do want to talk about how that future should be – peacefully working together, and to take this opportunity to be able to do that. We, of course, will continue as well with our assistance package, which, as you know, will bring in overall support of about 11 billion euros over time.
I want, as well, to mention the terrible escalation of violence in South Sudan and to pay tribute to your visit. I already know from our special representatives in the region and from people from the countries concerned that your visit was extremely timely and your efforts were very well recognized. So may I pay tribute to you for that, as well as many, many other things.
I’m worried that this country is on the brink of what could be a civil war, ethnically motivated. And the prospects of famine and the humanitarian disaster – they’re really looming large now, so we need to work together. We need to work to ensure that the leaders in South Sudan really do take the action that you’ve identified they need to. And when the meeting takes place on Friday, they really have got to now try and put aside personal differences and try and change the atmosphere and to try and prevent any further offenses and to respect the cessation of hostilities.
We’re actively considering the targeted sanctions that you’ve described. As you know, the Foreign Affairs Council, we’re meeting on Monday, and that’s the forum where I am president to try and look at all of these issues and see how we go forward. So we need to work very closely in good cooperation with you and with others and to make sure that we put as much energy as possible into trying to prevent what, as I said, could be a disaster.
Like you, our thoughts are with the parents of the Nigerian girls and with the girls themselves. These are the future of the country. They are teachers, dancers, politicians. They are scientists; they are mothers. They are women in the making, who have a right to play their full part in their society. And what has happened to them is devastating for all of us, and we must do, like you, everything possible to try and reunite them with their families and to prevent this ever, ever happening again.
But I want to end, if I might, by also reiterating my full support for everything that you have done in the Middle East. Your efforts are not, by any means, over yet. I know that. And I know that this has been a difficult time. But I do think that you have made tremendous progress and the European Union stands absolutely beside you as you continue your efforts and remains committed to supporting you in every way possible.
My final thought is on Iran. We will, of course, next week try and take this process forward. And we’re all interested in making sure that if we can get an agreement it’s the best agreement.
SECRETARY KERRY: Thank you, Cathy.
HIGH REPRESENTATIVE ASHTON: We always hug. There’s always a hug. (Laughter.)
MS. PSAKI: The first question will be from Andrea Mitchell of NBC News.
QUESTION: Thank you very much, Mr. Secretary, Lady Ashton. On Nigeria first, why has it taken so long to mobilize an American effort? We understand that President Jonathan today said he is welcoming the help, that there was no invitation before this, and if you understand that to mean that you can now act. But it will take a while to organize this cell in the Embassy. Why, given our extraordinary abilities with surveillance, with detection, did not the United States act sooner with other allies? It’s understood that some of these girls may have been taken across borders. There is an international issue. They are listed as a terror organization, Boko Haram, on the State Department list. It seems inconceivable to people around the world that we could not act sooner where lives are at stake. And how long now will it take to act?
And if I could ask you about Benghazi, because this is our first opportunity, sir. First of all, your response to Chairman Issa’s committee’s subpoena for you to appear, we understand that on May 21st, the date that you were ordered to appear, that you are supposed to be traveling, previously scheduled, in Mexico. Will you now organize another day to appear? How do you feel about being subpoenaed rather than being invited, as would have been the normal protocol? And what is your response to the committee’s charge that the State Department, under your watch as well, has dragged its feet on being forthcoming with all of the demands for documents?
And if I could ask Lady Ashton, finally, given the conversations between President Obama and Chancellor Merkel last week, can the international community really wait to see whether the sectoral sanctions should be imposed? It does seem as though Vladimir Putin and his supporters, these separatists, are not changing their policy and are not responding even to the damage that has been done, whatever it has been, to their economies.
Thank you all so very much.
SECRETARY KERRY: The last question --
QUESTION: Well, you can --
HIGH REPRESENTATIVE ASHTON: He’ll answer it as well.
SECRETARY KERRY: No, no, no. I want her to answer it. I thought it was for her.
QUESTION: Yes, for both, but --
SECRETARY KERRY: So – well, give me the last question again of the four questions I got on here.
QUESTION: Sorry. The last question is: Why wait to impose tougher sanctions given that Vladimir Putin has shown no sign of desisting despite the sanctions that have already been imposed? But I think first --
SECRETARY KERRY: Well --
QUESTION: -- Nigeria and Benghazi.
SECRETARY KERRY: All right, sure. Well, let me speak to Nigeria. First of all, we have been in touch from day one, and our Embassy has been engaged and we have been engaged. But the government had its own set of strategies, if you will, in the beginning. And you can offer and talk, but you can’t do if a government has its own sense of how it’s proceeding. I think now the complications that have arisen have convinced everybody that there needs to be a greater effort, and it will begin immediately. I mean literally immediately. We are in touch, our Embassy is in touch. We’ve been talking with AFRICOM, we’ve been talking with the various entities, and I think you’re going to see a very, very rapid response.
QUESTION: We have satellites, though, surveillance?
SECRETARY KERRY: I understand. Yeah, we do, but it depends where they are and what they’re looking at on any given day. And so there are options, and I can assure you – I think the White House will have more to say about what we are going to be doing, and I’ll let them speak for that. But the simple answer is we’re going to do everything in our power to able to be helpful. And I’m going to see the President in a little while this afternoon. I think the President may or may not have something to say about this in the near term.
And let’s just – the important thing is that we have put everything on the table. We’re going to send a team, and it’ll be a combined team ready to work. But you have to have a host country that’s ready to receive and work with you in any situation, and we’re prepared to work.
On the issue of Benghazi, I served 29 years in the United States Senate, 28-plus. And I was chairman of a major committee, and I don’t think I ever issued a subpoena to somebody that I hadn’t first invited to come and speak. I think this sort of speaks for itself, frankly.
We have had more than, I think, 50 briefings. There have been in the double digits of hearings. We’ve delivered over 25,000 documents. And the fact is that documents require a legal process to go through for examination of executive privilege or other kinds of – classified or other kinds of things that may or may not be in them. That’s just not – it doesn’t happen automatically. But I’ve guaranteed that we would cooperate in every single way. We have, and I will, and the Department will. That’s our obligation. And of course, we will. But I think everybody needs to take a hard look at – and sort of measure what’s been already put out there versus where this effort is going. And you see a very partisan response on the Hill with respect to it.
I also think there’s an issue of the requisite body figuring out who has jurisdiction over this, from what I understand. There are still some questions as to who is going to do what. So we’ll respond, because we have absolutely nothing to hide whatsoever, and I look forward to complying, whatever responsibilities we have.
QUESTION: Do you intend to --
SECRETARY KERRY: With respect to – I’ll comply with whatever responsibilities we have. And with respect to the question of tougher sanctions and sanctions, what we are doing is having a major impact. Nobody should doubt that. The bonds in Russia are already just above junk bonds in categorization, and they’ve had to postpone a number of sales of bonds. The economy is already on the downward decline. The IMF has already declared that it’s in recession. Their growth was going to be about 1.3 percent; it’s now prospected to be perhaps .1 or 2 percent, minimal, and we have only yet begun, if we have to. And I think there’s no question. But it is important for the United States and Europe to try to move together in this. We believe that. And so that requires a certain element of preparation, coordination. You have to do the right paperwork, the right examination. You have to pull your teams together. And we are proceeding, I think, in a very effective and authoritative way.
We’ve made it very clear – President Obama and Chancellor Merkel had a meeting the other day. And they said clearly that if there are interference or continued interference, if there is continued interference with respect to the election and election process, there will be more sanctions that this time will start to bite into the sectors of the economy. And those become even more compelling than what has been put on the table to this point.
But obviously, when you’re trying to keep a door open to be able to find some kind of a diplomatic solution, when the other party says they’re willing to come to the table and actually engage in that discussion, it seems to me reasonable to try to do that. And I think most people in most places want a responsible government, not to escalate to the point of creating an inevitable confrontation, but rather to find out if there’s a way to be able to find that diplomatic solution. That’s what diplomacy is about. There’s no question about our ability, when we want to, to be able to put sanctions in place that are even more biting than what we have today. But you have to ask yourself if the price has been (inaudible) ahead of time, whether or not that invites something further that you don’t want to have happen.
So there’s a delicate mix here, and I think President Obama has calibrated this extremely effectively. It’s having a biting effect, and we will continue to proceed in unity with our European allies to do what we think has the greatest impact and the most effect.
HIGH REPRESENTATIVE ASHTON: I mean, I have nothing much more to add, except to say that from the perspective of what the European Union is doing, it is this desire to see a way to find a method of de-escalation. And that was what Geneva was about. It’s why we put on hold measures that we were considering, because that’s, as you said, is what you do. When we saw that we were not getting the results from Geneva, we pressed the start button again and we’ve continued with those measures. And we’re looking at all of the possibilities. It’s a mix of things that you want to do to try and create the circumstances that will lead to the most important thing, which is stopping the violence, for people to stop occupying the buildings, and to get the kind of discussion, debate, and democratic approach that will lead Ukraine into its future. And so you have to consider all of the ways in which that can be done.
I will be bringing together the 28 foreign ministers on Monday. They will be discussing all of the elements of that approach, working very closely with our colleagues in the United States, in order to see how we can best do that. And it’s why countries like Germany, like others, obviously, engaging and talking as well as looking at what we might do as a coordinated effort, and I really hope that we’re successful in that.
MS. PSAKI: The next question will be from Gero Schliess from Deutsche Welle, and I’m sure I butchered that, but go ahead.
QUESTION: Gero Schliess, Gero Schliess, thank you. First part also on Ukraine: Some people have the impression that for the U.S. sanctions – or, let’s say, punishment or isolation of Mr. Putin is the most important goal. And I have a perception that Europe seems to be reluctant to pursue this policy. And my question to both of you is: We have (inaudible) that Putin is a problem, but in what respect could he be also part of a solution? And today, did you discuss the option of a neutral Ukraine that would possibly satisfy Putin and might be acceptable for the Western countries?
And the second part of my question goes – is about Syria. As Syrian delegation of – Syrian opposition is in D.C. to talk to the Secretary of State, Mr. Kerry, your Administration has granted the U.S. offices of Syrian National Coalition diplomatic status. Does this signal that the U.S. are getting more actively involved in the civil war, including providing the rebels with heavy weaponry?
And to you, Lady Ashton, would the European Union also grant diplomatic status to the Syrian National Coalition?
HIGH REPRESENTATIVE ASHTON: Should I start?
SECRETARY KERRY: Go ahead, please.
HIGH REPRESENTATIVE ASHTON: On Ukraine, it’s for the people of Ukraine to decide what Ukraine is and will be, and they will consider very carefully where they sit in the world. I’ve said whenever I visited Ukraine, when I met with the then-President Yanukovych and in more recent times, that it’s not about a competition between Europe and Russia for a nation, that Ukraine will want strong and good economic links with Russia. And we recognize that that’s important. This is never and never should be about this idea of a competition.
For us, it’s always about trying to find now the way forward, as I’ve already indicated, to find the formula that’s going to help to de-escalate the situation, to talk with everybody and to keep all the doors open while being very clear that the situation cannot continue as it is.
On Syria, I’ll answer very briefly, the European Union of itself does not do diplomatic relations with anyone. It’s individual member states who do that.
QUESTION: And may I ask, how far could Putin be part of a solution concerning the Ukraine crisis?
HIGH REPRESENTATIVE ASHTON: Well, President Putin is president of Russia, and Russia is playing a role at the moment. So the question for Russia is: If you take what I’ve just said about the fact that Ukraine as a nation needs to have a good relationship with all of its neighbors, then you need to start looking at how, from Russia’s perspective, they’re going to define that. And defining that for me is about strong economic links. Yes, there are strong historical links, and yes, there needs to be a way in which they can be peacefully co-existing side by side. And I hope that President Putin might consider that that is the way forward.
SECRETARY KERRY: With respect to your question on President Putin, there’s no observer of Russia, there is no one engaged in diplomacy today who doesn’t understand that President Putin is calling the shots in Russia, that a very narrow group of people around him are advising him in one way or the other. But President Putin is almost exclusively, if not exclusively calling the shots.
There is no specific effort by the United States of America to somehow single him out other than to respond to the fact that in his name, Russia has deployed its forces, engaged in direct activities involved first in Crimea, now in east and south of Ukraine, in ways that are destabilizing that country, and still has 40,000-plus or so troops lined up on the border in a place that it didn’t have them before they began to move into Crimea.
Now, what we are trying to do is not targeted on him because we have some personal thing or something about him. It’s because he’s making decisions that are adversely affecting the region and the rights of the people of Ukraine to choose their future and to have their sovereignty respected. We have only one interest in this. That is the stability and respect for Ukraine, its integrity and its sovereignty, and the opportunity of the people of Ukraine to choose their future. That’s our interest. And we are not seeking alignment; we’re not seeking anything except this universal value that is respected around the world for the right of people to not be bludgeoned at the butt of a gun, or with military invasion, to be told what to do.
Now, we believe that it’s appropriate for us to respond in response to the legitimate demands of a government that was voted on even by the former supporters of President Yanukovych, who deserted the country of his own free will, and made a decision not to live up to the agreement that he signed back in February. And the parliament, with his own party’s support, voted him out and provided for an interim government and called for elections. Now, what could be more sensible than to allow this country under siege to be able to have an election where they give legitimacy to a new government by having all of the people be able to vote? That’s all people are looking for here. It seems to me that it shouldn’t be so complicated for Russia to be able to engage in that process.
And we respect that Russia has a long historical connection to Ukraine, and that Kyiv is the home – the birthplace of Russian religion, and that wars of liberation have been fought on that territory. And we understand the connection and the strong feelings about protection of people who – Russian-speaking and so forth. We’re not – nobody’s arguing against that, though. The fact is that the interim government of Ukraine is prepared to respect the Russian language, prepared to respect the greater autonomy for people in that region, to give them – frankly, the people – the Government of Ukraine has offered to give the people in south and east Ukraine more power over their own lives on an everyday basis than Russia gives any individual state or province in Russia. That’s a fact.
And so the answer is that what we think is important here is that the rights of the people be respected. And Lady Ashton’s correct: They have to choose their future. But they have said they are not seeking alignment. They’ve said they’re not looking for NATO membership. And NATO and those of us who are members have said we’re prepared to respect the choice of the interim government and whatever future government of Ukraine there is.
Final comment: We have said again and again to the Russians – and I hope they hear it again today – we are not seeking for a Ukraine that belongs to some other part of the world, but only – we want one that just belongs to Ukraine. And we’re not seeking one that is a pawn between East and West. We’d like Ukraine to be a bridge between East and West. And we certainly agree with President Putin’s vision that we could have an economic arrangement that goes from Vladivostok to Lisbon that involves everybody in a major market where everybody benefits.
So there’s more to talk about than unfortunately some of the heated rhetoric has given people a sense of. And our hope is that – that’s why we pursue these discussions, is to see if we can’t find a way to make those interests meet the moment and find a way forward that de-escalates this confrontation.
MS. PSAKI: Thanks, everyone.
SECRETARY KERRY: Oh, and Syria. I didn’t answer Syria. On Syria, we have not recognized the SOC. We’ve given them diplomatic status to be able to come here, but because we have previously said that they are the legitimate representative. But we have not moved to create a diplomatic – to recognize them or create a diplomatic situation. But we’re hopeful that, again, there also, we can find a way forward that deals with this extraordinary violence that is literally destroying the country of Syria. And our hope is that we could have a reasonable way forward to do that. Thank you. Thank you all.
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