Secretary of State John Kerry said Friday the latest terror attack in France is another reason why the U.S. and Russia need to reach a new agreement to deal jointly with the Islamic State in Syria.
“We certainly join with you in expressing our absolute abhorrence for the incredible carnage that took place in Nice yesterday,” Kerry said Friday in Moscow alongside Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov. “The problem is that you and I and other foreign ministers and leaders of countries are now doing this almost on a weekly basis.”
“And nowhere is there a greater hotbed or incubator for these terrorists than in Syria,” Kerry added. “And I think people all over the world are looking to us and waiting for us to find a faster and more tangible way of them feeling that everything that is possible is being done to end this terrorist scourge and to unite the world in the most comprehensive efforts possible to fight back against their nihilistic and depraved approach to life and death.”
While Kerry didn’t label the attack in Nice, France, as “terrorism,” his comments implied it had its roots in the terrorist groups the U.S. has been trying to weaken in Syria for nearly two years now. The Islamic State has been able to inspire terrorist acts around the world, including in the United States.
Kerry met Thursday night with Russian President Vladimir Putin, and was expected to continue talks with Lavrov on a possible military alliance in Syria. That’s an idea the U.S. has resisted for months, and White House and State Department officials on Thursday didn’t deny there were ongoing discussions about this idea, even though they insisted it wasn’t a shift in position.
“[Y]ou and I and our teams are in the enviable position of actually being able to do something about it,” Kerry said in Russia about the possibility of some new agreement. “So I look forward to building on the conversations that we had last night, on the conversations we’ve had in previous months.”
“Russia and the United States have the ability uniquely here to be able to make a difference,” Kerry added. “And in making that difference we can also have an effect on the bilateral relationship in ways that I think both you and I would like to see some progress.”
One likely obstacle, however, is Russia’s close ties to Syrian President Bashar Assad. In an NBC interview this week, Assad said he has a great, open relationship with Russia, and invited Russia to start bombing terrorists in his country.
The Obama administration, however, says Russia has been attacking rebel groups supported by the United States.
Assad told NBC that the U.S. bombing in Syria is “illegal” because Syria didn’t invite the U.S. to make those strikes. He also said the Obama administration isn’t “serious” about fighting terrorism.
