State Secretary Kerry Urges Commitment of Russia to Minsk Agreement

Time: 11:34 p.m. CEST

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, flanked by U.S. Ambassador to Russia John Tefft and U.S. Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs Wendy Sherman, sits across from Russian President Vladimir Putin, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, and Presidential aide Yurly Ushakov, at the outset of a bilateral meeting at the Bocherov Ruche – a government villa – in Sochi, Russia, on May 12, 2015. [State Department photo/ Public Domain]

The United States Secretary of State John Kerry stated he had a “frank meeting” with the Russian President Vladimir Putin while visit to Russia on May 12, the BBC News reports. It was Kerry’s first visit after beginning of the Ukraine crisis in the early spring of 2014. The talks that endure for eight hours between State Secretary Kerry and the Russian leadership, “were a welcome development.”

Russia says it was not sending arms to the rebels in Ukraine, but as the BBC News reports, “Russia’s foreign minister Sergei Lavrov agreed with Secretary Kerry” that “the ceasefire in Ukraine is still being violated.” About 6,000 people died in the fighting which began in April 2014 in Ukraine “between Ukrainian government forces and Russian-backed rebels in Donetsk and Luhansk regions.”

State Secretary Kerry said, “it was critically important that a ceasefire deal agreed in Minsk in February be fully implemented in eastern Ukraine.” Kerry added that U.S. and European Union “sanctions against Russia could only be scaled down ‘if and when’ that happens.”

“We are in significant agreement on the most important issue of all, which is that [the conflict in Ukraine] will only be resolved by the full implementation of Minsk and all of us have responsibilities to undertake in order to affect that implementation,” Mr Kerry said.

Kerry talked after four hours meeting with Russian President Putin. The talks included topics on Iran, Syria, Libya and Yemen. Both foreign ministers, “laid wreaths at a World War Two memorial earlier.”

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov watch as members of their respective staffs each place a pair of roses on May 12, 2015, at the Zavokzalny War Memorial in Sochi, Russia, built in 1985 to commemorate the 40th anniversary of the end of World War II, and where about 4,000 soldiers are buried. [State Department Photo/Public Domain]

BBC News says, the visits happened on the same day when the opposition published report originally created by murdered Kremlin critic Boris Nemtsov. The report alleges that 220 Russian soldiers had died in two key battles in eastern Ukraine.

The last talks between Kerry and Putin were in Moscow in May 2013.

May 12, 2015May 13, 2015 by aleksandra dukovska Categories: News, WritingsTags: John Kerry, Russia, State Department, USA, Vladimir Putin Leave a comment

Secretary Kerry Testifies Before Senate Foreign Relations Committee about AUMF against ISIL

Time: 11:16 p.m. CEST

State Secretary John Kerry testified before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Wednesday about the President Barack Obama’s draft proposal to Congress for the Authorization to Use Force against ISIL. During the opening remarks, Secretary Kerry said, “ISIL’s momentum has been diminished, but it is still picking up supporters in places.”

State Secretary Kerry explained, “there is the beginning of a process to cut off their supply lines, to take out their leaders, to cut off their finances, to reduce the foreign fighters, to counter the messaging that has brought some of those fighters to this effort.”  According to Kerry, “to ensure its defeat, we have to persist until we prevail in the broad-based campaign along multiple lines of effort that have been laid out over the course of the last months.”

The President, Kerry underlined, “has statutory authority to act against ISIL, but a clear and formal expression of this Congress’s backing at this moment in time would dispel doubt that might exist anywhere that Americans are united in this effort.” The resolution would give the President, “a clear mandate to prosecute the armed component of this conflict against Daesh and associated person of forces, ” Kerry said in the opening remarks.

Explaining the AUMF Kerry said, “while the proposal contains certain limitations that are appropriate in light of the nature of this mission, it provides the flexibility the President needs to direct a successful military campaign.” The administration, Kerry explained, proposed “a limitation on the use of ‘enduring offensive ground combat operations.”

On Tuesday, Iraqi security forces and allied Shiite militias seized large parts of Tikrit. Moreover, as the White House press secretary Josh Earnest explained at the White House, “the U.S. official now estimate that ISIL has been rolled back by up to 25 percent of the territory they previously maintained. That in at least 25 percent of those area, previously occupied by ISIL, they have no longer have freedom of movement in those areas.”

March 11, 2015March 11, 2015 by aleksandra dukovska Categories: News, WritingsTags: Congress, National Security, State Department, USA, White House Leave a comment

Former State Secretary Clinton addresses Iran Letter and Email Issues

Time: 9:14 p.m. CEST

Hillary meets the press: http://t.co/ouyXg1F2NH | AP Photo pic.twitter.com/CZiyf31BbZ

— POLITICO (@politico) March 10, 2015

Former State Secretary Hillary Rodham Clinton on Tuesday during the news conference at the headquarters of the United Nations in New York City addressed the pressing email issue and the senators letter to Iran.

.@HillaryClinton comments on GOP letter to Iran: http://t.co/P3Ij4LxX7l http://t.co/cKzh5KgnpD

— CNN Politics (@CNNPolitics) March 10, 2015

For Clinton, “in the midst of the international negotiations with Iran,” “the recent letter from Republican senators was out of step with the best tradition of American leadership.” Clinton asked what was the purpose of that letter, and said, “either the senators were trying to be helpful to Iranians, or harmful to the Commander-in-Chief.”

Moreover, during the short address before she allowed question to reporters, Clinton said the server she and her husband use will remain private. Clinton explained, “the system was setup for President Bill Clinton’s office, was on property guarded by the Secrete Service and there were no security breaches.”

"The laws and regulations in effect when I was Secretary of State allowed me to use my emails for work. That is undisputed" – HRC

— Alex Romano (@alexromano) March 10, 2015

Clinton said she wants the public to know four things. As Clinton said, it was allowed by the State Department to use personal email. The emails from her account went to government emails and government employees. Former secretary turned to the State Department about 50.000 pages of printed emails, and most of them the State Department already had them. Clinton asked of the State Department to release all her work related emails and public could see them. Clinton said that federal guidelines was clear about what was personal, what was work related.

Clinton said she used personal email, “as a matter of a convenience, ” and that she “thought using one device would be simpler, it has not worked out that way.” As Clinton explained, she did not save some personal emails that she thought concerns her personal privacy. Former Secretary Clinton said did not send any classified material through the email.

Former Secretary Clinton was in the United Nations to address gender equality, and stressed she is content with the progress of Clinton foundation on that matter. However, “we are not just there yet.” Clinton pledged for more gender equality in the world before she addressed the pressing issues to the numbers of reporters and correspondents in New York City on Tuesday.

March 10, 2015March 11, 2015 by aleksandra dukovska Categories: News, News Through Lens, WritingsTags: Hillary Rodham Clinton, State Department, USA Leave a comment

Kerry: Talks on Iran Nuclear Program to Resume on March 15

Time: 6:09 p.m. CEST

#IranTalks remain tough, intense. Our goal isn’t to get any deal; it’s to get the right deal. Will resume March 15. http://t.co/ukHsVxTpw3

— John Kerry (@JohnKerry) March 4, 2015

Talks on Iran nuclear program will resume on March 15, the State Department Secretary John Kerry twitted on his Twitter account @JohnKerry on Wednesday. Kerry who was in Montreux, Switzerland on the discussions with Iran’s Foreign Minister Jamad Zarif twitted, “the talks remain though, intense.” For State Secretary Kerry, “our goal is not to get any deal, it is to get right deal.”

The talks would resume about two weeks before the self-imposed deadline for reaching a deal. That deal should change the previous interim agreement achieved in November 2013.

“We continue to be focused on reaching a good deal, the right deal, that closes off any paths that Iran could have towards fissile material for a weapon and that protects the world from the enormous threat that we all know a nuclear-armed Iran would pose, ” John Kerry said, according to the statement of the State Department.

March 4, 2015March 4, 2015 by aleksandra dukovska Categories: News, WritingsTags: Iran, John Kerry, State Department, USA Leave a comment

Josh Earnest on State Department’s Keystone Report: “It is Certainly Fair that State Department is Conducting In-Depth Review”

Time: 11:25 a.m. CEST

President Barack Obama vetoed the bill the Congress sent on Tuesday about the Keystone XL Pipeline. Obama’s administration did the move without waiting the State Department’s report about this energy project. Shortly before the White House announced the veto to the bill, Mark Knoller, a CBS radio White House correspondent questioned the White Press secretary Josh Earnest about the State Department report. “Does President Obama believes 2300 days is reasonable length of time for the State Department to conduct the report?” Knoller asked Earnest.

Here is what Earnest responded to the question.

“It is certainly fair that State Department is conducting in-depth review. The other thing that is also true, is there have been some legal proceedings that interfered with the completion of this review that was a long-running case in Nebraska about the proper root of the pipeline, and certainly that influenced the State Department ability to evaluate the root of the pipeline since it was not finalized and it was not subject of the court ruling. But, in a last few weeks the Court in Nebraska has issued the decision, has finalized the proposal. And now that final proposal can be evaluated by the State Department. That is what they are doing right now.”

After the answer, Knoller pressed again Earnest and asked, “Can you imagine what you would say on assignment, and you said: ‘I get back to you in 2300 days.'”

Earnest responded repeating his answer twice with a smile: “I can’t.”; “I can’t.”

February 25, 2015February 25, 2015 by aleksandra dukovska Categories: WritingsTags: Energy, Keystone, pipeline, State Department Leave a comment

President Obama: “The Notion the West is in War with Islam Is an Ugly lie.”

Time: 5:46 p.m. CEST

President Obama at #CVESummit: We must address the grievances that terrorists exploit. http://t.co/uyScAEBnnd

— Department of State (@StateDept) February 19, 2015

President Barack Obama addressed the representatives of governments and faith leaders and leaders of civil society at the summit to counter violent extremism at the State Department on Thursday. President Obama appealed to the common work between the government representatives, faith leaders and leaders of civil society to ensure the security and prosperity.

“We all have to ensure the security and prosperity, and human rights of human societies. The faith leaders join us because civil society reflecting the views and voices of citizens is vital to the success of any community, “ Obama stated during the address of the respective guests. President Obama mentioned four important steps for states to fight extremism, such as in the recent events in Europe, Asia, and Middle East.

According to Obama, “when people are oppressed, and human rights are denied, particularly along sectarian lines or ethnic lines, when dissent is silenced, it feeds violent extremism. It creates an environment that is ripe for terrorists to exploit. When peaceful, democratic change is impossible; it feeds into terrorist propaganda that violence is the only answer available.”

Obama talked as well to the representatives of the governments that participate in the international coalition against Islamic State group and emphasized the action of ISIL represents unspeakable cruelty.” President Obama stressed the importance of “the notion the West is in war with Islam is an ugly lie.”

At the same summit today in Washington D.C., State Secretary John Kerry said, “our partnership against violent extremism we are assembling has a room for anyone who is willing to respect fundamental rights, and dignity of other human beings. “ The United Nation Secretary General Ban Ki-moon explained, “the emergence of a new generation of transnational terrorist groups including Daa’sh (Islamic State group) and Boko Haram is a great threat for international peace and security. “

February 19, 2015February 20, 2015 by aleksandra dukovska Categories: News, WritingsTags: Barack Obama, Counterrorism, Foreign Policy, State Department, USA Leave a comment