BRITAIN-KERRY/NEWS CONFERENCE Kerry says Russia has made 'constructive moves' on Ukraine in recent days
Record ID:
836932
BRITAIN-KERRY/NEWS CONFERENCE Kerry says Russia has made 'constructive moves' on Ukraine in recent days
- Title: BRITAIN-KERRY/NEWS CONFERENCE Kerry says Russia has made 'constructive moves' on Ukraine in recent days
- Date: 16th December 2014
- Summary: LONDON, ENGLAND, UK (DECEMBER 16, 2014) (REUTERS) ***WARNING CONTAINS FLASH PHOTOGRAPHY*** U.S. SECRETARY OF STATE JOHN KERRY ARRIVING FOR NEWS CONFERENCE KERRY AT NEWS CONFERENCE REPORTER ASKING QUESTION (SOUNDBITE) (English) U.S. SECRETARY OF STATE, JOHN KERRY, SAYING: "Let me say that Russia has made constructive moves in the last days. And there are some indications that whether it is the line of control of negotiations, or the calm that is fact in place in a number of places, the withdrawal of certain people, there are signs of constructive choices. And that can only be helpful, hopefully." WHITE FLASH (SOUNDBITE) (English) U.S. SECRETARY OF STATE, JOHN KERRY, SAYING: "I don't think that what is happening is just related to the sanctions. I think it is much broader, much more complicated than that, it has to do with other issues with respect to the Russian economy and oil prices obviously have also played a significant role in this. So there are a lot of combined factors, but the sanctions were clearly intended to invite President Putin to make a different set of choices." CLOSE-UP OF U.S. FLAG (SOUNDBITE) (English) U.S. SECRETARY OF STATE, JOHN KERRY, SAYING: "We've made no determinations other than that about language, approaches, specific resolutions, any of that, we haven't made any determinations." WHITE FLASH (SOUNDBITE) (English) U.S. SECRETARY OF STATE, JOHN KERRY, SAYING: "This isn't the time to detail private conversations or speculate on a U.N. Security Council resolution that hasn't even been tabled, no matter what pronouncements are made publicly about it." WHITE FLASH (SOUNDBITE) (English) U.S. SECRETARY OF STATE, JOHN KERRY, SAYING: "We all know the risk of escalation is constant and it's real. And that is why it is imperative to lower the temperature and the tension so that we have an opportunity to find a path that Israelis and Palestinians both want so desperately which is a path that leads out of the current predicament." WHITE FLASH (SOUNDBITE) (English) U.S. SECRETARY OF STATE, JOHN KERRY, SAYING: "The status quo is unsustainable for both parties and for the region." WHITE FLASH (SOUNDBITE) (English) U.S. SECRETARY OF STATE, JOHN KERRY, SAYING: "Right now what we are trying to is have a constructive conversation with everybody to find the best way to go forward in order to create the climate the atmosphere, the political space if you will to be able to go back to negotiations and resolve this politically." CLOSE-UP OF HAND TYPING ON KEYBOARD (SOUNDBITE) (English) U.S. SECRETARY OF STATE, JOHN KERRY, SAYING: "The news of the brazen murder of more than 120 innocent students in Peshawar is devastating. And as a father I know exactly how hard it is when you send kids out of the house into the world to school or anywhere particularly in today's world. Mothers and fathers send their kids to school to learn and to be safe. And to dream and to find opportunity and particularly in the military school in Pakistan they sent their kids there with the hope and dreams of serving their country. Instead today they are gone. Wiped away by Taliban assassins who serve a dark and almost medieval vision and the opposite of everything that those mothers and fathers wanted for their children." JOURNALISTS (SOUNDBITE) (English) U.S. SECRETARY OF STATE, JOHN KERRY, SAYING: "Well this morning, wherever you live, wherever you are, those are our children and this is the world's loss. This act of terror angers and shakes all people of conscience and we condemn it in the strongest terms possible. The perpetrators must be brought to justice. And we pledge our full support to the people of Pakistan in this difficult hour. We will help them in anyway we possibly can." JOURNALISTS (SOUNDBITE) (English) U.S. SECRETARY OF STATE, JOHN KERRY, SAYING: "So we know in a very personal way what our ally Australia is going thorough at this very moment and we grieve with Australia, with the families of all those terrorised, injured and killed. And even though we are at opposite ends of the globe, the United States and Australia are united, not just in an alliance but we are deeply united by our and our friendship and our years of cooperation together." CLOSE-UP OF EAGLE KERRY LEAVING
- Embargoed: 31st December 2014 12:00
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- Location: United Kingdom
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- Country: United Kingdom
- Topics: General
- Reuters ID: LVA9A2ORN97ZEKC2MTBUX0HCY7JJ
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- Story Text: Russia has made constructive moves in recent days towards possibly reducing tensions in Ukraine, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said on Tuesday (December 16).
Speaking in London, Kerry said the United States and Europe were ready to ease sanctions against Russia if President Vladimir Putin took more steps to deescalate tensions in eastern Ukraine.
"Let me say that Russia has made constructive moves in the last days," Kerry told reporters. "There are some indications that whether it is the line of control of negotiations, or the calm that is fact in place in a number of places, the withdrawal of certain people, there are signs of constructive choices. And that can only be helpful, hopefully."
Kerry said the purpose of Russian sanctions was to make clear to Putin that there were costs associated with Moscow's support for separatists in eastern Ukraine.
Ukraine's separatist east passed the night into Tuesday without any shooting, Ukraine's President Petro Poroshenko said, hailing the first such stretch of calm as a positive signal in a peace plan.
Asked about the collapse of the Russian rouble, Kerry said: "There are a lot of combined factors, but the sanctions were clearly intended to invite President Putin to make a different set of choices."
He added that the collapse of the currency was not only due to sanctions but also reflected other factors such as the fall in oil prices.
Kerry said none of the measures taken against Russia were targeted at hurting the Russian people. The impact of sanctions on the Russian people were as a result of the choices made by the Russian government, he said.
The rouble plunged more than 11 percent against the dollar on Tuesday in its steepest intraday fall since the Russian financial crisis in 1998.
Russia's annexation of Ukraine's Crimean peninsula and Kremlin backing for armed pro-Russian separatists in Ukraine's eastern regions have provoked the worst crisis between Russia and the West since the Cold War.
Kerry also said the United States had made "no determinations" about any possible U.N. Security Council resolutions on Palestinian statehood.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Monday (December 15) that he had sought reassurances from Kerry that Washington would block efforts by Palestinians and Europeans to set a time frame for a Palestinian statehood.
Jordan has circulated a Palestinian-drafted resolution to the 15-member council calling for Israeli occupation of Palestinian land to end by November 2016.
"We've made no determinations about language, approaches, specific resolutions, any of that," Kerry told reporters.
"This isn't the time to detail private conversations or speculate on a U.N. Security Council resolution that hasn't even been table no matter what pronouncements are made publicly about it," he added.
He said they were mindful they had to "carefully calibrate" any steps that were taken and it was "imperative to lower the temperature" in the region to find a path for peace wanted by both Israelis and Palestinians.
"The status quo is unsustainable for both parties," he said. "Right now what we are trying to is have a constructive conversation with everybody to find the best way to go forward."
At the same news conference Kerry said Tuesday's Taliban attack on a school in Peshawar, Pakistan in which at least 130 people died - most of them children - had angered the world.
"The news of the brazen murder of more than 120 innocent students in Peshawar is devastating," he told reporters. "This morning, wherever you live, wherever you are, those are our children and this is the world's loss."
"This act of terror angers and shakes all people of conscience ... the perpetrators must be brought to justice," he said.
At least 132 students and nine staff members were killed on Tuesday after Taliban gunmen broke into a school in Peshawar and opened fire, witnesses said, in the bloodiest massacre the country has seen for years.
More than eight hours after militants slipped into the heavily guarded compound through a back entrance, the army declared the operation to flush them out over, and said that all nine insurgents had been killed.
The attack on a military-run high school attended by more than 1,100 people, many of them children of army personnel, struck at the heart of Pakistan's military establishment, an assault certain to enrage the country's powerful army.
Kerry also expressed support for Australians after Monday's hostage-taking in a Sydney cafe which left two innocent people dead.
"We grieve with Australia, with the families of all those terrorized, injured and killed," he said. "Even though we are at opposite ends of the globe, the United States and Australia are united ... by our values and our years of cooperation together."
Heavily armed Australian police stormed a Sydney cafe early on Tuesday morning and freed terrified hostages held there at gunpoint, in a dramatic end to a 16-hour siege in which two captives and the attacker were killed.
Authorities have not publicly identified the gunman, but a police source named him as Man Haron Monis, an Iranian refugee and self-styled sheikh known for sending hate mail to the families of Australian troops killed in Afghanistan. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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