Kerry Remarks With French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius at Joint Press Availability
John Kerry
Secretary of State
Quai d'Orsay, Ministry of Foreign Affairs
Paris, France
September 7, 2013
...snip
France, Mr. Fabius. France and the United States have stood together to defend the values that we share, and at this moment in the wake of the brutal chemical weapons attacks in Syria, the relationship President Kennedy spoke about is as essential as ever.
The French understand perfectly the importance of the situation because some of the earliest deadly chemical weapons attacks took place here on French soil during World War I, and many of the earliest victims of these lethal and indiscriminate weapons were young French soldiers no older than 19 or 20 years.
Shortly after that war ended, the community of nations came together to draw a global redline to ensure that these heinous weapons would no longer be acceptable on the battlefield or anywhere else, and forever. And with a few abhorrent exceptions, that line has been upheld. But we know with absolute certainty that Bashar al-Assad, as the minister just said, has crossed that line, that redline. And on August 21st it was not soldiers fighting in trenches who were targeted. It was hundreds of young children and their parents, Assad’s own people. It was innocent families who suffered the (inaudible) horror, eventual death these weapons cause.
There is no question that that happened and that the Assad regime is responsible for that. And plus, they have the capability to attack again, and the risk of inaction is far worse than the risk of action. Today, Assad is watching to see whether his actions will be met with impunity. And he is looking – he is joined by his friends in Iran, in North Korea, by Hezbollah and others who want to see if the United States, France, and the rest of the world will stay silent when our warnings are ignored.
It is not hyperbole to say that the safety of the entire world depends on whether our collective conscience and our commitment to international norms that have been in place for nearly a century compels us to react. We are not talking about going to war. This is not Iraq. It’s not Afghanistan. It’s not even Libya or Kosovo. We have been very clear the United States believes the only way for the Syrian conflict to truly end is through a political, not military, solution. What we are talking about here is a limited military action, one that is aimed squarely at degrading Assad’s capacity to use chemical weapons and deterring him from using them again. What we are talking about is standing together and speaking with one voice in opposition to a quite clear violation of a redline that the world has defended for nearly 100 years.
This is really our Munich moment. This is our chance to join together and to pursue accountability over appeasement. The United States, as our French partners know, cannot be silent spectators to this slaughter. This is not the time to allow a dictator unfettered use of some of the most heinous weapons on Earth. This is a time to pursue a targeted (inaudible), as the minister has said, a clear and effective response that holds dictators like Bashar al-Assad responsible for the atrocities they commit.
I know I also speak for President Obama when I say that we are exceedingly grateful to have France by our side in the effort to uphold the global redline on chemical weapons and protect our shared sense of decency for the generations that follow.
(In English) Let me reiterate that we are not talking about going to war. This is not Iraq. It is not Afghanistan. It is not even Libya or Kosovo. We have been very clear the United States believes the only way for the Syrian conflict to truly end is through a political and not a military solution. What we are talking about here is a limited military action, one that is aimed squarely at degrading Assad’s capacity to use chemical weapons and deterring him from using them again. What we are talking about is standing together and speaking with one voice in opposition to a clear violation of a redline the world has defended for nearly 100 years.
So this is our Munich moment. This is our chance to join together and pursue accountability over appeasement. We in the United States know and our French partners know that this is not the time to be silent spectators to slaughter. This is not the time to send a message where doing nothing is far more risky than responding. This is not the time to allow a dictator unfettered use of some of the most heinous weapons on Earth. This is a time to pursue a targeted and limited but clear and effective response that holds dictators like Bashar al-Assad responsible for the atrocities that they commit.
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