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U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said on Monday it was "inappropriate" for Donald Trump to brand German Chancellor Angela Merkel's refugee policy "a catastrophic mistake". "I thought frankly it was inappropriate for a president-elect of the United States to be stepping into the politics of other countries in a quite direct manner," Kerry told CNN's Christiane Amanpour during a one-day visit to London in the last week of the Obama administration. "He will have to speak to that. As of Friday, he is responsible for that relationship." Trump, who will be sworn in as president on Friday, had said...

Monday on CNN International’s “Amanpour,” commenting on President-elect Donald Trump’s first UK interview with The Times of London, which covered several international issues, Secretary of State John Kerry said, “I thought frankly it was an inappropriate for a president-elect of the United States to be stepping into the politics of other country in a quite direct manner.” KERRY: He’ll have to speak to that as of Friday. You know he’s responsible for that relationship. AMANPOUR: You're talking about Angela Merkel's refugee policy which he did call catastrophic. KERRY: He did call it that and I think that she was extremely...

Viet Cong veteran Vo Ban Tam remembers the first time he crossed paths with John Kerry on the banks on the Bay Hap river, a day that ended in bloodshed. Almost a half-century later, the now 70-year-old Mekong Delta shrimp farmer locked eyes with the US Secretary of State on Saturday and they warmly grasped hands in mutual respect. Kerry returned to the Vietnam waterway at the end of a visit to the Communist nation, less than a week before he was to leave office, searching for the spot where he won a Silver Star for bravery as a young...

Secretary of State John Kerry is participating in a French-hosted conference on Mideast peace less than a week before the end of the administration to ensure U.S. views are heard, but with no “intent to in any way box in the incoming administration,” State Department spokesman Mark Toner said Thursday. At the same time, however, Toner declined to say whether Kerry would act to ensure that a communique coming out of Sunday’s conference does not call on the Trump administration to reconsider a campaign pledge to move the U.S. Embassy in Israel to Jerusalem. French officials have suggested that the...

US Secretary of State John Kerry called Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu Sunday from the Paris peace conference, promising to prevent any followup action to a resolution set to be drawn up on Sunday, either at the confab itself or at the United Nations Security Council. After a month of chilly ties between Washington and Jerusalem, Kerry updated Netanyahu about the steps he was taking to “soften” the text of the final communique, which is expected to be issued by the conference participants later Sunday.

CA MAU, Vietnam — It could have been 1969 again as Secretary of State John F. Kerry stood on the bow of the small boat chugging up the Bay Hap River on Saturday, the wind billowing his sleeves and his eyes darting left and right toward banks shrouded in dark foliage. As a young Navy lieutenant, Kerry commanded a Swift boat along this stretch of churning brown waters in the middle of a free-fire zone. Here, he earned a Silver Star for his heroics when he leapt ashore after an ambush to pursue a fleeing Viet Cong with a grenade...

TEL AVIV – In a shameful display of rogue diplomacy, 72 countries – minus Israel – are set to attend a Middle East “peace” conference in Paris on Sunday widely expected to set the parameters for a future Palestinian state. Fresh from his 70-minute speech two weeks ago largely singling out Israel for condemnation, lame-duck Secretary of State John Kerry will represent the U.S. at the Mideast confab. There, Kerry is slated to represent the Obama administration in crafting a “consensus” document on an Israeli-Palestinian deal. This after a U.S. abstention last month allowed the passage of a United Nations...

U.S. Secretary of State’s John Kerry’s closing memo to President Barack Obama painted a rosy picture of the U.S. role in the world since Obama took office in 2008. Kerry claimed Obama made the best of a bad situation, citing Obama’s inheritance of wars not his own in Iraq and Afghanistan, in addition to a grave economic crisis. Talking points seeking to validate Obama’s supposed success by blaming the past are a frequent and familiar direction for the Obama administration. “The United States is more secure, more respected, and more engaged in the world,” the glowing memo states, adding that,...

[This is another excerpt from the series of profiles on Kerry put together by the Boston Globe. I think it warrants attention for a number of things. One, note that Kerry was helping the anti-war movement while still a Navy officer. Two, note that he got an early out to run for Congress, but seems to have not run after all .] John Kerry returned from Vietnam in April 1969, having won early transfer out of the conflict because of his three Purple Hearts. He asked for a cushy assignment - service as an admiral's aide - and was given...

BEIRUT, Lebanon — Secretary of State John Kerry was clearly exasperated, not least at his own government. Over and over again, he complained to a small group of Syrian civilians that his diplomacy had not been backed by a serious threat of military force, according to an audio recording of the meeting obtained by The New York Times. The 40-minute discussion, on the sidelines of last week’s United Nations General Assembly in New York, provides a glimpse of Mr. Kerry’s frustration with his inability to end the Syrian crisis. He veered between voicing sympathy for the Syrians’ frustration with United...

John Kerry doesn’t come late to the betrayal of friends. He has had considerable practice. In 1971, when he was a young lieutenant just back from Vietnam, where he was a decorated skipper of a Swift Boat patrolling the Mekong River, he appeared before the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee to pay his “respects” to the American soldiers, sailors and Marines he fought a war with. Representing all those veterans, he told the senators, he wanted to talk about war crimes he said “were committed on a day-to-day basis with the full awareness of officers at all levels of command.”...

When Secretary of State John Kerry delivered his comprehensive statement on the Arab-Israel conflict in front of a safe audience at the State Department, he took over an hour to defend the decision of the United States to in essence allow passage of the recent UN anti-Israel resolution by abstaining from it, rather than adhering to the longstanding policy of the U.S. to veto such resolutions. The general thrust of his message was to chastise Israel for building “settlements” on land defined as “occupied Palestinian territory,” as the main obstacle preventing a two-state solution. In addition to focusing attention on...

Secretary of State John F. Kerry on Wednesday offered a harsh and detailed assessment of Israeli settlements in the West Bank, saying their growth threatens to destroy the viability of a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and that the United States was obliged to allow passage of a U.N. resolution condemning the activity in order to preserve the possibility of peace. Kerry noted that the number of Israelis living in settlements has grown significantly and that their outposts are extending farther into the West Bank — “in the middle of what by any reasonable definition would be the future...

I’m excited for him. It’s no small thing for a man to realize a fantasy he’s cherished for decades, even though literally no one cares what he has to say. Obama’s a sport for letting him live the dream. That sounds like a joke but it isn’t. What explanation could there be for this except that Kerry badly wanted to extend a rhetorical middle finger to Netanyahu’s government, whose agenda he attacked today as being “driven by its most extreme elements,” on behalf of the Obama administration as they head out the door? Nothing will flow from it policy-wise. The...

Full title : Kerry: “Israel can either be Jewish or democratic. It cannot be both. And it won’t ever really be at peace.” …”The truth is that trends on the ground, violence, terrorism, settlement expansion and the seemingly endless occupation, they are combining to destroy hopes for peace on both sides and increasingly cementing any reversible — an irreversible one state reality that most people do not actually want."Today, there are a similar number of Jews and Palestinians living between the Jordan river and the Mediterranean sea. They have a choice. They can choose to live together in one state...

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu responded earlier today to the hour long speech by Secretary John Kerry and the clarified stance of the U.S. position toward Israel as outlined in the past several days.

How can Israel do that when the Palestinian Authority and Hamas teach children to hate and kill Israeli Jews?https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=51U_EBDggkQ   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JzWjSpka6gA   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j-kOwFA8xZ4&t=3s  

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry on Wednesday said Israel's building of settlements on occupied land was endangering Middle East peace, voicing unusually frank frustration with America's longtime ally. In a swiftly issued statement, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu accused Kerry of bias. He said Israel did not need to be lectured to by foreign leaders and looked forward to working with incoming President-elect Donald Trump, who has vowed to pursue more pro-Israeli policies.

Secretary of State John Kerry on Wednesday said American allies "won't be swayed or intimidated by a tweet" from President-elect Donald Trump, who has repeatedly weighed in on foreign affairs despite not yet taking office. In an exclusive interview with NBC's Andrea Mitchell, Kerry said he would not get into a "debate" with Trump, but suggested U.S. allies have been "affected" by the president-elect's recent commentary on U.S.-Israeli relations and other sensitive foreign policy issues.

n about two hours, John Kerry will deliver a speech at the State Department to outline the Obama administration’s plan for a peace settlement between the Israelis and Palestinians. Needless to say, the Israelis aren’t happy about it, Republicans are furious about it — and even some Democrats want Kerry and the White House to shut up. Rep. Steny Hoyer, the House Democratic whip, lashed out at Kerry and the Obama administration for reversing decades of American policy on peace negotiations: Rep. Steny Hoyer (D-Md.), the Democratic whip in the House of Representatives and the second- highest ranking Democrat in...