Secretary of State John Kerry defended the Obama administration’s policy in the Middle East and North Africa, arguing the U.S. has a sense of “urgency” in its fight against the Islamic State.
“Yes, there is a strategy,” Kerry said Saturday during a speech at the Brookings Institute.
“We believe that in the end, Daesh is going to be defeated,” he added, referring to the Islamic State by an alternative name.
Kerry called for a “unified Syria” and vowed to work to establish “elections with fair, full transparency” that would be supervised by the United Nations.
“We are not naive about the obstacles that exist to success,” he said. “All of it is difficult. If it were easy, it would have happened a long time ago.”
The secretary of state boasted that the U.S. is the largest supplier of humanitarian aid to the region.
Kerry also defended the controversial nuclear deal with Iran, promising the agreement places acceptable barriers on Iran’s ability to acquire a nuclear weapon.
“I know you still have concerns. No one is blind to that,” he said. “But we are convinced based on information and judgement and years of expertise provided to us by our entire intelligence community … that we have the ability to know what Iran is doing and we have to remain committed to the policy … that Iran cannot get a nuclear weapon.”
On Israel and its conflict with supporters of a Palestinian state, Kerry urged both parties to refrain from “inflammatory rhetoric” and encouraged everyone involved to “take affirmative steps to reduce tensions.” He said a two-state solution is the administration’s preferred policy, arguing it is a top priority in the Middle East.
Critics have accused the Obama administration of underestimating the threat posed by the Islamic State and for shying away from a “red line” it once drew against Syrian President Bashar Assad remaining in power.
