Kerry to visit Paris amid scramble to counter Charlie Hebdo march criticism | World news | The GuardianKerry to visit Paris amid scramble to counter Charlie Hebdo march criticism | World news | The Guardian










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Charlie Hebdo attack



Kerry to visit Paris amid scramble to counter Charlie Hebdo march criticism









Obama administration seeks to recover from decision not to send a senior representative to weekend anti-terrorism march in Paris

Paris attacks: France deploys thousands to guard vulnerable locations
Opinion: If je ne suis pas Charlie, am I a bad person? 


















US secretary of state John Kerry announces he will visit Paris later in the week, at a news conference in Gandhinagar, India. Photograph: Rick Wilking/AFP/Getty Images




Dan Roberts in Washington






@RobertsDan





Monday 12 January 2015 09.23 EST







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The Obama administration is scrambling to recover from its controversial decision not to send a senior representative to Sunday’s anti-terrorism march in Paris by announcing a hastily arranged stopover by John Kerry, the US secretary of state, later this week.
As the conspicuous absence of US political leaders from the huge rally raised growing questions in Washington, Kerry said he would make the short trip “to make it crystal clear how passionately we feel about the events that have taken place there”.
Seventeen people died in Paris last week when Islamist terrorists attacked the office of the satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo, killing 12 people, and a kosher supermarket, killing four; a police officer was also shot dead by the man who attacked the supermarket.
“As soon as I heard about the plans for the march that took place yesterday, I asked my team to figure out what the earliest is that I could travel to Paris in order to show, once again, to reaffirm the connection between the United States and our oldest ally,” Kerry told reporters during a prescheduled visit to India.
“And so, I will be traveling there on Thursday, and be there Friday, part of Friday. And I want to emphasise that the relationship with France is not about one day or one particular moment. It’s an ongoing, longtime relationship that is deeply, deeply based in the shared values, and particularly the commitment that we share in freedom of expression.”
Kerry rejected accusations, expressed most vividly on the front page of Monday’s New York Daily News but shared by some French commentators, that he and President Barack Obama had erred in not joining fellow world leaders at the event, which attracted millions of people. 


— Philip Crowther (@PhilipinDC)
January 12, 2015
They may have a point: “@mlcalderone: Daily News blasts Obama admin for not having a top official at Paris march: pic.twitter.com/a4k8vsoOPB”



“I really think this is sort of quibbling a little bit, in the sense that our assistant secretary of state, Victoria Nuland, was there and marched,” said Kerry when asked if it was a mistake not to send a high-level delegation.
“Our ambassador was there and marched. Many people from the embassy were there and marched. And I believe that, as everybody knows, I have been here in India for a prior planned event. I would have personally very much wanted to have been there, but couldn’t do so because of the commitment that I had here, and that’s important to keep those kinds of commitments.”
White House sources have indicated that one complicating factor was the level of extra security that would have been necessary for Obama to attend. But this may only raise more questions for the administration, since one of the aims of the march was to show how democracies would not be cowed by terrorist threats.
Nevertheless, officials insist that ongoing US security support for France is more important than symbolic diplomatic gestures.
“The president and our administration have been coordinating very, very closely with the French on FBI matters, intel, law enforcement across the board, and we will continue to make available any assistance that may be necessary,” said Kerry.
“And I don’t think the people of France have any doubt about America’s understanding of what happened, about our personal sense of loss, and our deep commitment to the people of France in this moment of trial.”
The fallout from the attack is likely to be at the top of the agenda for Obama when he meets British prime minister David Cameron in Washington later this week.



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