Kerry: ‘We stand with the French’

PARIS: US secretary of state John Kerry paid respect in both English and French yesterday to the victims of last week’s terrorist attacks in Paris in a show of American solidarity with the French people.

At a ceremony at the Hotel de Ville, the city hall of Paris, Kerry called the attacks a “living nightmare” but one that would unite rather than divide the people of France and the world.

“I really wanted to come here and share a hug with all of Paris and all friends,” he told the crowd that included survivors, family members of victims, and members of the police and municipal government who responded to the attacks, including the Muslim man who risked his life to hide Jewish patrons from the gunman who stormed a kosher supermarket.

“I wanted to express to you personally the sheer horror and revulsion of all Americans for the cowardly and despicable assault on innocent lives,” Kerry said.

The secretary’s visit to Paris, his 19th to the city since he became secretary of state, came amid lingering criticism in the US of the Obama government’s failure to send a cabinetlevel official to Paris for Sunday’s unity march that attracted some 40 world leaders and close to two million people.

Kerry did not address the matter but pointedly stressed the close bonds between the US and France.

“I represent a nation grateful each day that France is our oldest ally,” he said before introducing his friend, musician James Taylor, who performed his hit You’ve Got a Friend, starting with several bars of the French anthem.

Kerry earlier met French president Francois Hollande and Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius before visiting the sites of the attacks, offering silent prayers and laying wreaths to honour the dead.

“I think you know that you have the full and heartfelt condolences of the American people and I know you know that we share the pain and the horror of everything that you went through,” he told Hollande. – Sapa-AP