Washington: Secretary of State John Kerry too could not make it to the anti-terrorism rally attended by over 40 world leaders as he was on a pre-planned trip to India “doing some important work representing US interests there” the White House said Monday. In damage control mode, US admitted that it should have sent a higher profile official to the Paris unity march, but said President Barack Obama could not go because of security considerations.
The Secretary of State is somebody who has very important responsibilities himself. He was in India this past weekend doing some important work representing US interests there,” White House Press Secretary, Josh Earnest, told reporters. Kerry and President Barack Obama have been facing criticism for not sending being present at the Paris march, which was attended by over a million people.
Spokesman Josh Earnest said the rally was conceived on Friday evening and did not allow enough time to pull off the security feat required for Obama to march amid the public, which attracted more than three-and-a-half million people. Earnest said it posed “significant security challenges.
US officials said Kerry could not skip his pre-scheduled trip to Ahmedabad to attend the Vibrant Gujarat Summit and meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi. “It (India-US ties) is a really important relationship and it would not have been desirable to skip the India trip,” a senior State Department official said last week.
From Ahmedabad, Kerry travelled to Islamabad unannounced to hold talks with Pakistani leadership on a range of issues, of which counter-terrorism is one of the most significant one. At the conclusion of his trip to India, he made an unannounced visit to Pakistan, where he is right now. While in Pakistan, he actually visited the school in Peshawar that was the site of the terrible terrorist attack just a couple of weeks ago, Earnest said.
“I think the (US) President in the same way that high profile representation at the march and the president’s decision to go to the French embassy in Washington shows US solidarity with the French people as they confront terrorism.
I think the secretary of state’s visit to this school demonstrates the American people’s solidarity with the people of Pakistan as they face down extremism and violence and terrorism in their own country,” he said. “There were discussions internally about who should go from the US Government.
More than a million people took to the streets of Paris Sunday to pay tribute to the 17 victims of last week’s terrorist attacks on Charlie Hebdo satirical magazine for publishing cartoons of Prophet Mohammed.
Bureau Report
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