Kerry says US wants to help ‘builders’ in Mideast

Opening speech, Kerry says he’s not “going to be as passionate as he wants to be” in his address, due to mild laryngitis and to save his voice for Vienna meetings.

“It’s an understatement to say today that we’re facing a very different world, a world of remarkable complexity,” he says.

“A world of violence that is not state-on-state, it is non-state actors who are confounding states and the global order,” he says.

Kerry says the US is “more deeply engaged today” in more places, “with more impact” than ever before in its history.

Kerry speaks of Rabin assassination and quotes eulogies by King Hussein on peace and by Rabin’s granddaughter Noa.

“Beyond the cold statistics, beyond the headlines in the daily newspapers… there is humanity. There is humanity of people like us,” he says. He says beyond complexities, there is a struggle “between people who want to open wounds” and “those that want to close them” and heal.

He says the struggle between destroyers and builders is focus of US policy in the region.

“Our goal is to help ensure that builders and healers” have opportunities to accomplish tasks, he says.

Kerry says it would be “directly and profoundly contrary” to US interests to shy away from Mideast intervention.

He says that 9/11 taught the US that regional conflicts turn into larger conflicts quickly.