Didn't take job to be a yes man, John Kerry says

[Mass]

http://www.cnn.com/2013/03/05/politics/kerry-interview

Doha, Qatar (CNN) -- Don't look for the United States to send weapons to Syrian rebels any time soon, Secretary of State John Kerry said Tuesday in a CNN interview on the last full day of his first international trip as the nation's top diplomat.
Instead, President Barack Obama's administration will continue to provide non-lethal aid while other countries arm the rebels fighting to defeat forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad in the two-year conflict that has claimed nearly 70,000 lives and left many areas of Syria in ruins.
"The president always has options and always has the right to adjust a policy as he goes forward," Kerry said. "At the moment, this is the calibration the president believes is correct to try to give the opportunity for a diplomatic solution."
...
Iran: Kerry said Obama continues to prefer a diplomatic solution to concerns over the Middle Eastern country's nuclear weapons. But he said Iran should be willing to prove to the world that its nuclear program is peaceful.
...
Kerry said former basketball player Dennis Rodman's trip to North Korea wouldn't do anything to resolve the tension between Pyongyang and much of the rest of the world.
"I have great respect for Dennis Rodman as a basketball player. As a diplomat, he was a great basketball player," Kerry quipped.
...
His appointment as secretary of state: Kerry said he didn't accept the job to be a "yes person," and doesn't think Obama wants him to be, despite Washington chatter that the second-term president is assembling a team that largely mirrors his own views. "I don't think the president appreciates just 'yes' people," Kerry said. "I think he is a man who has a very highly developed intellect and looks for answers to tough issues in a very inquisitive, Socratic way, and he looks for every point of view he can, and then he makes the tough decisions. So my job is to tell him the truth.

(If there is an audio, can somebody post it, please).

[ProSense]

1. Thanks for posting

The State Dept. site is a great resource. It's especially useful to contrast how the media is reporting Kerry's comment with his actual statement.

[blm]

2. PLEASE let this transmit to Keystone - even though I know it's already a done deal.

If Kerry somehow prevailed on Keystone over TeamClinton, it will feel like a miracle.

[Mass]

3. An interesting article about the meeting with Abbas

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2013/03/05/kerry-s-impromptu-meeting-with-abbas.html

“I don’t think Kerry is a maverick,” said Hussein Ibish, senior fellow at the American Task Force on Palestine. He called the meeting “very significant” because it shows that “Kerry, with the encouragement of President Obama, is willing to spend some political capital and some energy on investigating the extent, very early on,” of opportunities for progress between Israel and the Palestinians.

“I’m sure it had (White House) blessing,” said Steven Simon, until recently senior director for Middle East and North Africa at the National Security Council, of the meeting in Riyadh. “It makes diplomatic sense.”

Administration officials intend the trip to allay suspicions by Israelis and some of their American supporters over the strength of Obama’s support for the Jewish state. They also hope it will mark a fresh start after a first term marked by an angry snub of Netanyahu over settlements and the failed shuttle diplomacy of U.S. special Mideast envoy George Mitchell.

While the White House cited coalition talks as the reason Kerry skipped Israel and the West Bank this week, it seems clear it didn’t want the secretary of State—who has a reputation as an adept negotiator who hungers for a lasting legacy—to upstage the President.

(uh, Kerry could upstage Obama?). Of course, this is Aaron David Miller, saying that. No surprise.

“Governing is about choosing,” Miller said, ranking the Israeli-Palestinian conflict behind Iran and Syria as a concern in the region. “Presidents decide what's important to them. It’s driven by opportunity and whether they can make progress. It’s a management issue.”

One that Kerry and his aides will be left to oversee while the President and Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel, the administration’s point man on U.S.-Israeli military relations who is still recovering from his brutal confirmation battle, deal with budget cuts and sequestration at home.

Amid the exodus of Clinton staffers from Foggy Bottom, a few names of their replacements have begun to surface:

Philip Gordon, Assistant Secretary for European and Eurasian Affairs, will take over the central region portfolio that used to belong to Dennis Ross, the longtime Middle East negotiator. Ross, according to a close observer, is expected to remain on call as an unofficial conduit to Netanyahu but is stepping back from a major role because he lacks the confidence of the Palestinians.

Frank Lowenstein, former chief of staff for the Senate Foreign Relations Committee under Kerry, left the Podesta Group last month and is expected to move to State as a senior advisor to his old boss. Another committee veteran, Bill Danvers, also may come on board.

Acting Assistant Secretary of State for Near East Affairs Elizabeth Jones, a career foreign service officer, could be nominated to stay on. If not, Puneet Talwar, a former Hill staffer who more recently was the NSC’s senior director for Persian Gulf Affairs, has been mentioned for the post.

[Mass]

4. I have now seen NBC interview and read ABC's one.

What is clear now is that Kerry is trying to calm things down and the media pushing for war. Amazing.

http://video.msnbc.msn.com/mitchell-reports/34510812#51054051

http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/TheNote/secretary-state-john-kerry-interview-martha-raddatz-doha/story?id=18655479

[wisteria]

5. Isn't it? n/t

[blm]

6. For 4 years they had a traditional hawk heading State Dept. They see the world through

that prism still.