John Kerry

Designating these areas as a national historical park has important economic and environmental, historical and educational benefits for the region.

But as Senator Kerry has pointed out, the Blackstone River Valley is a rich concentration of mills and villages.

This bill is supported by the National Park Service, by the city of Lowell, and by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.

I believe the bills that I am addressing here today, I think, make sense.

I particularly want to thank Senator Kerry for his kind words in support of this legislation.

There is no question in my mind that these bills will help Massachusetts grow its economy.

The Feed the Future Initiative establishes the United States as a political and moral force in the fight against hunger and poverty.

In 2009 Senator Lugar and I introduced the Global Food Security Act, which sought to improve the U.S. emergency response to food crises.

The most important thing we can do is keep stressing over and over our support for universal human rights being respected in Syria

And so as much as anything else, our involvement, I think, is about what influence our view of the world, which we think is better for the Syrian people, could ultimately play in that country.

It is high time. It is past time for the Security Council to be playing a role.

We cannot decide who wins and who is in charge and how they balance all these internal conflicts that they have, but we clearly want them to be able to pursue their peaceful aspirations.

The goal of the opposition and the Friends of the Syrian People alike is as follows: a Syrian-led political transition to a democratic government based on the rule of law and the will of the people with protection of minority rights.

Given the indiscriminate killing of its own citizens and given its back of the hand to the global community, as well as to the regional powers that have tried to intervene, it seems clear that the Assad regime is ultimately going to fall.

We are moving ahead with humanitarian assistance for the Syrian people demanding that attacks cease and access be granted.

The demise of the Assad regime is inevitable.

Their determination to continue protesting for their rights, mostly still peaceful protests, is an inspiration and a testimony to the human spirit.

Ambassador Ford's courageous actions on the ground in Syria these past months have been a great credit to him, to the Foreign Service, and to the United States.

But in the midst of all this, it seems to me that as much as anything else--and clearly this is about regime change.

I think it is going to be really hard for an Islamist to go to one of these young guys who was thanking us, who thought America was on their side, and convince them to join some sort of anti-American jihad in a couple years.

The United States pledged $10 million in support to help provide humanitarian assistance to refugees and internally displaced persons.

It is not in our interest to see the Bashar al-Assad regime survive.

If the election process is free and fair, we will consider a range of actions including the targeted easing of certain sanctions.

What we are intending to do is ratchet up these sanctions as hard and fast as we can.

I support our dual track of intense pressure and of being willing to engage because I want to gather as much information not only about actions, but about intentions.