Kerry's ceaseless diplomacy faces
sternest test on Syria
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[September 26, 2016]
By Lesley Wroughton
NEW YORK (Reuters) - John Kerry had heard
enough.
After last week's bombing of a U.N. aid convoy in Syria dealt a death
blow to a ceasefire deal in which he had invested all his diplomatic
capital with Russia, the U.S. Secretary of State tossed aside a page of
notes and looked at Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov across the
horseshoe-shaped table in the U.N. Security Council.
"I listened to my colleague from Russia, and I sort of felt a little bit
like they're sort of in a parallel universe here," said a visibly angry
Kerry, effectively calling Lavrov a liar for blaming the United States
for spoiling the ceasefire.
The moment in some ways captured the former politician's time as the top
U.S. diplomat, which will end with a new administration in January.
Not for the first time, Kerry had invested months of intensive diplomacy
and tireless traveling on an issue only to end up feeling let down or
deceived by negotiating partners. On Syria, Kerry has wanted greater
U.S. involvement than President Barack Obama was willing to support.
In an interview on Friday with Reuters, Kerry said Lavrov's "blatant
obfuscation of reality ... took my breath away."
The attempted Syria ceasefire was his most ambitious effort to fix what
some argue was the biggest foreign policy misstep of Obama's
administration, which began with the failure in 2013 to follow through
on a "red line" threat against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad over the
use of chemical weapons.
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Kerry hammered out the truce two weeks ago, but was left pleading in
vain with Russia last week to halt renewed air strikes on the besieged
city of Aleppo.
James Dobbins, a former U.S. special envoy to Afghanistan, noted Kerry's
"tireless, ceaseless engagement" even when pursuing administration
policies he didn't always agree with.
"Kerry to his credit has stayed in the game even when he had a weak
hand," said Dobbins, a career diplomat who worked alongside Kerry in
2013 to hammer out a deal with President Hamid Karzai to keep U.S.
forces in Afghanistan.
"The situation in Syria is too serious and too consequential to simply
back off and leave it to others."
From Kerry's perspective, it is better to fail than not to have tried.
"The weakest hand of all would be to have another round of migrants
going into Europe, (Russian President Vladimir) Putin do whatever he
wants by dropping bombs and the United States doing nothing but
pretending we're sending some support to people," Kerry told Reuters.
"That is the weakest hand, and it is far stronger to stand up and find a
way to leverage getting to the table and getting some kind of an
understanding," he added.
TAKING RISKS
In his nearly four years as America's top diplomat, Kerry has racked up
more miles than any other secretary of state, sometimes appearing to
rush in without a clear strategy.
"It is clear that Kerry is prepared to take greater risks with his own
personal reputation than others might have ... because they did not want
to be identified with failure," said Dobbins.
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But some critics say Kerry stayed in the game too long in negotiating
with Russia, which they argue manipulated his quest for a deal over
Syria to strengthen its position.
The Syrian conflict, with its shifting geopolitical forces, complex new
alliances and new threats such as the rise of Islamic State, has tested
Kerry like no other issue.
After Obama declined to carry out threatened attacks on Assad's forces
over chemical weapons, Kerry perceived an opening to work with Lavrov on
an agreement to get Syria to turn over its chemical arsenal, he told
Reuters.
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![](../images/092616pics/news_x43.jpg)
Secretary of State John Kerry boards a boat for a cruise through
Boston harbor with British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson, European
Union High Representative Federica Mogherini, French Foreign
Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault, German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter
Steinmeier, Italian Foreign Minister Paolo Gentiloni in Boston,
Massachusetts, U.S. September 24, 2016. REUTERS/Brian Snyder
![](../images/ads/current/richardson_lda_090916.png)
That deal struck in 2013 was considered a success, but the war has
since deteriorated and grown more complex following Russia's
military intervention backing Assad last year.
Now the continuing ceasefire push by Kerry strikes some as hopeless
gesturing.
"Kerry's plan is to do more of the same despite the repeated failure
of U.S. attempts to strike a deal with Russia," said Mutasem Alsyofi
of the Syrian Civil Society Declaration Initiative, who met Kerry in
New York last week.
OVERREACHING?
It's not the first time Kerry's been accused of overreaching. At the
start of his term in 2013, Kerry vigorously pursued a peace deal
between the Israelis and Palestinians.
Even as others warned of failure, an undaunted Kerry spent months
shuttling between Jerusalem and Ramallah.
However, U.S. ally Israel's announcement of 700 new housing units
for Jewish settlements in territory the Palestinians claim for a
future state finally caused the talks to collapse, although Israel
blamed the Palestinians move to apply to join 15 international
conventions and treaties.
Kerry's biggest accomplishments came in 2015 with the Iran nuclear
deal and the U.N. climate change agreement. In both instances, he
had Obama's leadership and full support for the very visible U.S.
role, though both deals have been vilified domestically in the
polarized American political environment.
![](http://archives.lincolndailynews.com/2016/Sep/26/images/ads/current/graue_16_sonic_091216.png)
Last week's failure of a second Syrian ceasefire agreement brokered
by Kerry unleashed a fresh round of stinging criticism of the
administration's Syria policy.
Republican Senator John McCain called Kerry "intrepid but
delusional" for placing too much faith in the prospect of
cooperation with Russia.
Kerry, a Vietnam veteran who lost to George W. Bush in the 2004
presidential election, is not running for office again and has often
remarked that he has nothing to lose.
"In this business of diplomacy, you have to test things sometimes,"
he told Reuters. "It is a mistake to delude yourself. It is also a
mistake to avoid putting something to test where there is a
reasonable chance something may be able to happen."
Hours after the tense exchange at the U.N. Security Council, Lavrov
and Kerry met again. The Russian diplomat had brought a new proposal
for putting the ceasefire back on track. Kerry looked at the sheet
of paper, folded it tightly and stuffed it into his top pocket.
(Additional reporting by Phil Stewart, Patricia Zengerle in
Washington; editing by Stuart Grudgings)
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