September 29, 2016 | No Comments
Contrary to the idea that Donald Trump and other Republicans have pushed on the campaign trail, Secretary of State John Kerry said Thursday that the U.S. is more engaged with the world now that at any point in the nation’s history.
“I hear this, and I hear people allege that the United States is retrenching and that we’re somehow pulling back,” Kerry said during a question-and-answer session at the Washington Ideas Forum. “I think if you measure all of American history, there’s never been a moment where the United States is more engaged in more places, simultaneously, on as significant a number of complicated issues as we are today, and with impact.”
Pushing back against the suggestion that America’s stature around the world has diminished under the leadership of President Barack Obama, Kerry pointed to an array of international issues on which the U.S. has made significant progress, including curbing the spread of Ebola, helping to hold together a fragile government in Afghanistan and promoting freedom of navigation in the South China Sea.
Kerry also defended perhaps the Obama administration’s highest-profile diplomatic effort, the multi-lateral nuclear deal reached with Iran. He said that agreement is holding and that Iran “is living up to their requirements.” The deal has proven “measurable and accountable, transparent,” Kerry said. He added that Iran has complained that the U.S. has not met its end of the agreement when it comes to improving access to the world’s financial markets, even though Kerry said the U.S. has met its obligations.
Kerry said the ongoing conflict in Syria, the other massive international issue facing the Obama administration, “is as complicated as anything I’ve ever seen in public life.” He said the civil war there earns that designation because of the amalgamation of conflicts, “Kurd against Kurd, Kurd against Turkey, Saudi Arabia-Iran, Sunni-Shia, everybody against ISIL, people against Assad,” going on inside the country.
He lamented that the most-recent ceasefire had been broken, a failure that Kerry said was likely the fault of the Syrian and Russian governments, but added that he has no regrets about how the U.S. has gone about addressing the fighting in Syria.
“I make no apology, nor does president Obama, none whatsoever, for trying to reach out and find out if there’s a way to achieve the political settlement that everybody says is the only way to solve the problem of Syria,” the secretary said. “You’ll find most people constantly saying there is no military solution. Well if there’s no military solution, what is the political solution? And how do you get there?”