By Michael Hernandez
WASHINGTON, D.C.
An open mic conversation between U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and Fox News on Sunday seemed to suggest that his patience with Israel’s military invasion of Gaza was wearing thin.
America’s top diplomat took to four different American news networks Sunday to address the situation in Gaza and the rising tensions over the downing of Flight MH17 in eastern Ukraine. His comments were recorded by Fox News prior to their interview.
“It’s a hell of a pinpoint operation,” he said twice, apparently frustrated during a phone call with an unidentified staffer.
His comments were apparently in reference to Israel’s insistence that its invasion of Gaza would be limited.
The voice on the other end of the line can be heard saying, “It’s escalating really significantly, and just underscores the need for a ceasefire.”
“We’ve got to get over there,” Kerry replied. “I think, Jon, we ought to go tonight. I think it’s crazy to be sitting around.”
Fox News played back his comments on air. Anchor Chris Wallace then asked if Kerry was upset by Israel’s continued invasion of Gaza.
Kerry replied, “It’s tough to have this kind of operation, and I reacted obviously in a way that anybody does with respect to young children and civilians. But war is tough, and I said that publicly and I’ll say it again. We defend Israel’s right to do what it is doing in order to get at those tunnels.”
It’s not clear who was on the line with Kerry during the phone call.
The hot mic slip-up came as U.S. President Barack Obama was preparing to send Kerry to Cairo shortly to work on an end to the violence.
Obama informed Israeli Premier Benjamin Netanyahu in a phone call Sunday morning that he will send Kerry to Cairo to broker a ceasefire, according to a readout of the call provided by the White House.
"The President also raised serious concern about the growing number of casualties, including increasing Palestinian civilian deaths in Gaza and the loss of Israeli soldiers," according to the White House.
The State Department announced Sunday evening that Kerry would depart for Cairo on Monday to meet with senior Egyptian and other unspecified officials to work on a ceasefire.
"We believe there should be a ceasefire as soon as possible – one that restores the cease-fire reached in November of 2012," said State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki in a statement released to the press. "Secretary Kerry is working to support Egypt’s initiative to pursue that outcome, and will travel to the region as part of those efforts."
The ongoing violence has resulted in more than 500 Gazan deaths and thousands of people being injured.
Missile from Russia downed MH17
The U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry on Sunday said hours before the downing of Malaysian Airlines Flight MH17, the SA-11 missile system was moved by pro-Russian separatists through the area in eastern Ukraine where the event took place.
Kerry said "we know that they had an SA-11 system in the vicinity literally hours before the shoot-down took place."
Kerry stated they are sure that Ukrainians did not have such a system close to the crash site and now fingers are pointed towards the separatists concerning the downing of the civilian airliner.
Kerry added that there were social media records and intercepted conversations of separatists "talking about the transfer and movement and repositioning of the SA-11 system."
"It’s pretty clear that this is a system transferred from Russia in the hands of the separatists," he said.
He told of the recordings of a separatist who bragged about the shoot-down of a plane at the time, right after it took place.
"The self-appointed Defense Minister of the People’s Republic of Donetsk, Mr. Igor Strelkov, posted a statement bragging on social media about having shot down an airliner, and then when it became apparent it was civilian, that particular posting was quickly removed," he added.
On another interview, Kerry said they knew for certain that pro-Russian separatists had been trained by Russians to be competent in the use of SA-11 missile systems.
Kerry added that there were more details pointing to the separatists, a 150-vehicle convoy including armored personnel carriers, tanks, rocket launches, and artillery transferred from Russia to the pro-Moscow separatists in the last month.
Kerry stated the trajectory record of the misslie launched at the MH17 revealed it to be SA-11 system as it hit the airliner at an altitude of 33,000 feet.
298 people were on board when the Malaysian Airlines Flight MH17 was shot down. International invesitgators have not been allowed to have a full unrestricted access to the crash site by pro-Russian separatists.
The UK, the Netherlands and the U.S. have urged Russia to facilitate OSCE monitors and international investigators to gain full access to the area.
*Kasım Ileri contributed to this story
www.aa.com.tr/en
