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Kerry Tells VOA He Hopes for No Russian Tension Spillover

by VOA News March 20, 2014

In an exclusive interview with VOA, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry discussed the Iran nuclear issue and also said that said he hopes tensions with Russia over Ukraine do not affect other global issues requiring continuing U.S.-Russia diplomacy.

"I don't think it's in anybody's interests to have this," he said during a 15-minute on-camera interview with VOA's Persian service. "First of all, it's in nobody's interests to have Ukraine made more dangerous by Russia moving troops or becoming more provocative. Secondly, it's in nobody's interests to have this grow rather than de-escalate. Thirdly, it's in nobody's interests to have other serious issues become the victim even further like Syria, Iran, Afghanistan where we've been able to cooperate."

Still, Kerry said differences between Moscow and Washington are causing strain.

"We would like to be able to cooperate on these things," he said. "We didn't ask for this but we're not going to allow the law to be completely run over. We're not going to allow the post-World War II order, the international structure be destroyed by the unilateral actions of one country. So it's really up to President Putin and the Russians to decide you know how they're going to proceed here."

The U.S. will continue to pressure Russia, Kerry said.

"We're prepared to respond very, very strongly with additional, serious, sector sanctions if they continue to engage in illegal activities like crossing the border of an international - of a country and they're not respecting the sovereign territory," he said..

Kerry commented on the same day that U.S. President Barack Obama announced new sanctions against Russia. The president said his government is imposing penalties on more individuals involved in Crimea's annexation.

Kerry also commented on efforts to resolve Iran's nuclear conflict. The U.S. and Russia are among six nations that have been trying to reach a permanent deal with Tehran that would prevent it from developing nuclear weapons.

Kerry said he believes a final agreement with Iran is 'achievable.' He added that the plan would have to meet international standards of accountability and transparency.

"Iran knows that out absolute bottom line is that there will not be, cannot be a nuclear weapon," he said. "That's our bottom line. And if it's a peaceful program, then it ought to be very easy to show everybody it's a peaceful program, it's not hard to do that if you're serious. So we're open to many different formulas for trying to do that.

"But I'm not going to sit here and choose between one particular choice or another - except to say that we want to avoid confrontation," he said. "We don't want this to, you know, not wind up producing what it ought to be achievable which is a method by which you approve that Iran's program is truly peaceful and could not quickly be transformed into a weapons progra