Ahead of the nation’s busiest holiday season, Secretary of State John Kerry said Monday he knows of no “specific threat” to the USA – and remains confident that “ISIS will be defeated”. Mr. Secretary, good morning, and let me ask you about the security situation here in the United States.
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Showing no signs of softening, Netanyahu told Kerry that Israel would fight “every hour” against those committing and inciting violence, linking his government’s efforts to the global campaign against the Islamic State group and other extremist forces. “ISIS is not 10-feet tall”, Kerry told Savannah Guthrie Monday in an exclusive interview on TODAY.
“Over the past years, I have cautioned of the grave consequences of what is happening in and around Jerusalem, including severe restrictions imposed on our people, violations of their civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights, and the attempts to change the identity, historical and demographic character of Jerusalem”, said Abbas in a statement to mark the worldwide Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People which falls on November 29. In recent days, ISIS has managed to pull off attacks in Paris and Beirut and brought down a Russian jetliner.
The USA military is accelerating its attacks on tanker trucks used by the Islamic State to haul oil for its lucrative smuggling operations. So some people have returned to their homelands, and they have been taught the trade craft of terror regrettably, so, no. We’ve only had the coalition against Daesh for one year now.
“We have to cut off the notion of success in Daesh that attracts people elsewhere to want to affiliate with them, and then Daesh gets a cheapie – someone who is already a terrorist does something in their name”, he said, using the Arabic acronym for Islamic State.
KERRY: And the fact is that during that period of time about – let me just finish – about 25% of their territory that they controlled has been taken away from them. Whole towns and communities have been eliminated.
“The pace has to be picked up and more needs to be done, and everybody understands that”, Kerry said. Further, 66 percent of Americans do not believe President Obama has a good idea of how to deal with ISIS, and 83 percent think a terrorist attack is likely to happen in the U.S.in the near future.
“The continuation of the Israeli occupation… cruel arrests and detention of civilians, extrajudicial killings of our youth and children, the blockade of Gaza, home demolitions, repeated brutal attacks by Israeli terrorist settlers against our people and their property, and provocations and incitement against their holy places…affirm Israel’s arrogance and intransigence, its violations of worldwide law, its rejection of peace and its adherence instead to the ideology of colonial expansion, subjugation and greed”, he charged.
Palestine Liberation Organisation senior official Saeb Erekat on Monday blamed Israel’s prime minister for almost two months of deadly unrest, on the eve of key talks with the top USA diplomat.
Kerry said much will depend on whether Ahrar al-Sham decides to be “part of the political process, they’re willing to observe a cease-fire and put down their weapons and so forth”.
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“People need to not panic”, he added.
