Free Republic

Lavrov said he did not know much about the Free Syrian Army and had asked U.S. leadership for more information. "In any case, I asked [U.S. Secretary of State] John Kerry to have [the United States] give us some sort of information of where the Free Syrian Army is and who's running it," he said, according to Sputnik News.

US Secretary of State gives same message of condemning violence and need for calm to both Israelis and Palestinians. US Secretary of State John Kerry shared his "deep concern" Saturday over the recent wave of terror in Israel, though he made efforts to treat the two sides as equally culpable, AFP reports. Kerry called Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and PA President Abbas separately "to express his deep concern over the recent wave of violence and offer his support for efforts to restore calm as soon as possible," a State Department statement said.

Speaking Monday in Valparaiso, Chile, Secretary of State John Kerry was asked why the term "climate refugees" does not exist in international law. Kerry said the question was "right on point," and although the term is a new one, he expects it's "just a matter of time" before it is incorporated into international policy. "We have climate refugees today," Kerry told a town hall meeting on the sidelines of an Oceans conference.

Russia and the U.S. have agreed to hold urgent military talks to ensure they do not end up 'in conflict' after Vladimir Putin launched airstrikes on Syria. More than 20 Russian fighter jets launched an attack on three provinces in Syria yesterday, after the U.S. was given just one hours' notice to remove its planes and officials from the area. The move increased tensions between the two countries, after concerns were raised that the airstrikes were only targeting anti-government rebels, many of whom are backed by the U.S.-led coalition, instead of ISIS-held areas. Syrian opposition chief Khaled Khoja said 36...

Amid reports that Russia’s first airstrikes in Syria had not struck Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS/ISIL) positions but those of other anti-Assad elements, Secretary of State John Kerry met again with his Russian counterpart Wednesday and repeated U.S. concerns about exactly what was being targeted.“It is one thing obviously to be targeting ISIL – we’re concerned obviously if that is not what is happening,” Kerry said after the talks, speaking alongside Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov at U.N. headquarters in New York.Kerry told reporters he had reiterated concerns he had stated during a U.N. Security Council meeting on...

Breitbart News has learned that President Obama called Secretary of State John Kerry and U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Samantha Power into a video conference before Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Speech to the United Nations General Assembly on Thursday. “Ambassador Power and Secretary Kerry were unable to attend Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu’s speech before the General Assembly because they were called into a meeting with President Obama, which they participated in via video teleconference,” a State Department Official told Breitbart News. Although they were both in New York for the United Nations General Assembly meetings, the two high-ranking...

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said on Wednesday Russia's military support for Syrian President Bashar al-Assad could raise the risk of confrontation with coalition forces fighting Islamic State there. In an interview with Italian newspaper La Stampa, Kerry said he had told Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov the United States was worried by Moscow's military backing for Assad in Syria's civil war, now in its fifth year. "These actions could provoke a further escalation of the conflict and lead to the loss of more innocent lives, increasing the flow of refugees and risking a confrontation with the anti-ISIS (Islamic...

US Secretary of State John Kerry has blocked a meeting between Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and Palestinian Authority (PA) chairman Mahmoud Abbas, senior Palestinian and Israeli officials say. During a meeting with four retired Israeli ambassadors in Paris last Monday, Haaretz reported, Abbas said that despite his willingness to meet with Netanyahu, "a third party who is not Israeli" had recently prevented the meeting. Netanyahu has reportedly been sending Abbas messages for weeks about reviving the long-stalled peace process amid escalating Arab violence and Abbas' threat to suspend key clauses of the Oslo Accords during his visit to the United...

Secretary of State John Kerry has named a new czar to improve transparency at the State Department as the agency struggles to overcome archaic recordkeeping practices and glacial handling of public records requests — shortcomings exposed by the continuing furor over Hillary Clinton's use of a private email account as America's top diplomat. Ambassador Janice Jacobs will assume the newly created position of "transparency coordinator," Kerry said in a statement Tuesday.

Secretary of State John Kerry on Friday left the hospital where he has been recovering from a broken leg after a bicycling accident, and said he expects to join the Iran nuclear talks for their “last slog” at the end of June. Kerry, who is 71, emerged from Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston shortly before 5 p.m., walking gingerly on two crutches. He wore what appeared to be white running shoes instead of his normal wingtips, and he looked pale after spending almost two weeks in the hospital. But he seemed in good humor as he joked that he was...

It's too bad John Kerry broke his right leg instead of his left arm. Had he shown up in Geneva for the final round of talks on the Iranian nuclear pact with his left arm in a cast (yes, he's a lefty, naturally), he could have excused himself from signing the thing. The deadline for final terms is June 30. Mohammad Javad Zarif, Secretary of State Kerry's Iranian counterpart, would no doubt have suspected a conspiracy, but everything to the Iranians is a conspiracy. Iranian media said Kerry's bike crash was a cover-up for an assassination attempt.

Iranian media erupted on Wednesday with an unsubstantiated rumor that US Secretary of State John Kerry was not injured earlier this week in a simple fall from his bicycle in Switzerland, but rather he was the target of an assassination attempt while meeting with Islamic State terrorists. The Iranian media has been known to report "conspiracy theories" in the past, such as a September report that Israel was spearheading a dangerous global plot to spread the Krav Maga martial art worldwide and a December report that Israel was building settlements in Iraq. The latest Iranian report, first published by the...

Speaking via telephone to the summit he was scheduled to attend before his bike accident scrubbed those plans, Kerry forcefully pushed back against any notion that ISIS is a state, despite the group's broad territorial gains. Kerry spoke about the need to "maintain momentum in the battle of ideas," according to excerpts from the call provided by the State Department. "One way is to expose at every opportunity the false nature of Daesh's claim to be the Islamic State. In reality, Daesh is no more a state than I am a helicopter," Kerry said, using another name for ISIS widely...

Secretary of State John Kerry’s severe bicycle accident might have foreign policy implications. He recently broke his leg while cycling in Switzerland. When asked by reporters about the accident, White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest admitted that nuclear talks with Iran would be affected by the accident, but reassured them that Kerry would still play a prominent role in the process. “The fact is, we do continue to believe that we have the time and resources necessary to pursue and hopefully complete the Iran negotiations,” he said. “And I’m confident that those negotiations will be affected by the secretary’s injury,...

WASHINGTON - The White House is confident it can still pursue Iran nuclear talks despite US Secretary of State John Kerry's injury over the weekend, a spokesman said on Monday. Kerry left Europe for the United States earlier on Monday after breaking his leg in a cycling accident on Sunday. "We do continue to believe that we have the time and resources necessary to pursue, and hopefully complete, the Iran negotiations," White House spokesman Josh Earnest told reporters in a briefing. He added that Kerry would continue to play a critical role in the talks, although it was unclear exactly...

A U.S. military aircraft from a base in Germany will transport Secretary of State John Kerry to Boston from Geneva for medical treatment for a broken leg, his spokesman said on Monday. "Secretary Kerry will be transported (from Geneva) to Boston aboard a U.S. military C-17 transport aircraft. The aircraft, based in Ramstein, Germany, will be staffed by additional military medical personnel in keeping with standard practice," State Department spokesperson John Kirby said in a statement.

Secretary of State John Kerry suffered a broken leg in a bike accident in France early Sunday, and will return to the U.S. for treatment, the State Department said. The cycling accident occurred near Scionzier, France, about 25 miles from Geneva, where Kerry had been holding nuclear talks with Iran's foreign minister, Javad Zarif. Kerry was flown by helicopter to a hospital in Geneva in a stable condition, and is said to be in good spirits. State Department spokesman John Kirby said Kerry had suffered a broken femur, but is expected to make a full recovery.

BREAKING NEWS – Secretary of State John Kerry was flown to a Swiss hospital Sunday following a bike crash outside Geneva, where he had been holding nuclear talks with Iran’s foreign minister. State Department spokesman John Kirby said Kerry likely suffered a leg injury in the accident. Kerry was in stable condition. The accident occurred near Scionzier, France, outside the Swiss border. Paramedics and a physician were on the scene with his motorcade at the time. Kerry was transported to Geneva’s main hospital HUG, where he was being evaluated, Kirby said. A paramedic traveling with his motorcade immediately examined Kerry...

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We have followed the performance of Marie Harf as a spokesman for the Obama administration foreign policy at the State Department. Harf gives the catastrophic foreign policy of the Obama administration a lighter than air, Valley Girl kind of feel. She is a walking self-parody. As such, she presents a novel use of expressive form. Now comes word that Harf is being promoted to Senior Advisor for Strategic Communications to Secretary of State John Kerry. Like a helium filled balloon, Harf ascends. In her new position Harf will focus on negotiations between the U.S. and Iran on nuclear weapons. It...