John Kerry arrives in Paris to reaffirm U.S. support after terrorist attacks
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Version 0 of 1. PARIS — Secretary of State John F. Kerry arrived Monday in Paris on a hastily arranged visit to reaffirm strong U.S. commitment to France and express American condolences directly to the French people after Friday’s deadly Islamic State attacks. U.S. officials said Kerry would meet with senior French officials as well as U.S. Embassy staff and their families. They said the overnight stop was closely coordinated with French security to ensure it would not interfere with the ongoing investigation into the attacks. Kerry will also meet with French President Francois Hollande on Tuesday morning, Hollande’s office said. [The push for a Syrian cease-fire] Kerry sped under police escort from Le Bourget airport directly to the U.S. Embassy in the heart of Paris. Standing in the courtyard where embassy staff members were gathered under a cold drizzle, he proclaimed that “the United States and France are not only friends, we are family.” As lights were turned on illuminating the embassy in blue, white and red, the French national colors, Kerry said that “Paris has known even darker moments, and it has overcome them.” While the dead are mourned, he said, “we don’t have the power to bring them back . . . we must do what is within our power” to defeat the terrorists. “Don’t mistake what this represents” he said of the fight against the Islamic State. “This is not a clash of civilizations . . . these terrorists” have attacked “all civilizations. There is nothing, nothing civilized about them.” Kerry said that plans would go forward for an international climate conference in Paris later this month. “We will not let our sorrow . . . overcome us,” he said. Instead, “we will do our duty, side by side, and we will prevail.” Kerry is the first senior foreign official to visit Paris since militants staged a series of attacks on several locations in Paris, leaving at least 129 dead. He traveled from Turkey, where he had accompanied President Obama at the two-day Group of 20 summit that wraps up late Monday. World leaders have condemned the assaults, which Obama called “an attack on all of humanity and the universal values that we share,” and they vowed to redouble their efforts against the Islamic State. As French officials pressed a manhunt for suspects, the U.S. military provided targeting information and coordinated with French warplanes that on Sunday attacked the Syrian city of Raqqa, the Islamic State’s de facto capital. Before joining Obama at the G-20 gathering in the Turkish Mediterranean resort of Antalya, Kerry met in Vienna with members of an international support group on Syria, including regional and European allies, as well as Russia and Iran. Divided over Syria’s civil war — with Russia and Iran backing Syrian President Bashar al-Assad — the group agreed to a plan for Syrians to begin negotiations toward a transitional government and a cease-fire that would allow international attention to be fully focused on defeating the Islamic State in both Syria and Iraq. |