NJDC Hails Senate Confirmation of John Kerry for Secretary of State
Listed in: Israel, Other Foreign Policy, NJDC News, Press Releases
WASHINGTON, DC- The National Jewish Democratic Council (NJDC) hailed the Senate’s confirmation of Senator John Kerry (D-MA) to serve as Secretary of State. NJDC Chair Marc R. Stanley said:
“We are pleased to see that the Senate has confirmed John Kerry to be the next Secretary of State. Kerry has a long record of support for Israel and demonstrated during his confirmation hearing that he is the right person to be taking a global leadership role against a nuclear-armed Iran. To echo what so many have said already, we know that Kerry will make an excellent Secretary of State and we are proud that he will be serving as America’s top diplomat.”
Kerry testified on the subject of Iran’s nuclear program during his confirmation hearing before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee:
“Given our extraordinary interest in nonproliferation, we must resolve the questions surrounding Iran’s nuclear program. The President has made it definitive: we will do what we must do to prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon. And I repeat here today, our policy is not containment it is prevention. And the clock is ticking on our efforts to secure responsible compliance. This Administration, working with congress and an unprecedented international coalition, has put into place crippling sanctions on Iran. ... President Obama has stated again and again—and I want to emphasize this—he and I prefer a diplomatic resolution to this challenge and I will work to give diplomacy every effort to succeed. But no one should mistake our resolve to reduce the nuclear threat.”
“I’d say this to the Iranians, I hope they listen. They have continually professed the peacefulness of their program. It is not hard to prove a peaceful program. Other nations have done that and do it every day. And it takes intrusive inspections, it takes living up to the publicly arrived at standards—everybody understands what they are. The allies in the P5+1 have made it very clear… that we are all united in this standard and that we are looking for the full compliance with the NPT… the Iranians need to understand there’s no other agenda here...”
More excerpts from Kerry’s testimony in front of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee are available here.
