Kerry Urges Russia to Hand Over Snowden

US Secretary of State John Kerry called for Russia on Tuesday to hand over accused leaker Edward Snowden, saying Washington was not looking for "confrontation."

Published

5 months ago

Categories

World, US

Topics

Security, International Relations, Europe, United States, US Politics

People

John Kerry, Edward Snowden

Places

United States of America, Russia, Moscow

Transcript

SHOTLIST: JEDDAH, SAUDI ARABIA, 25 JUNE 2013, SOURCE: US POOL **NO RESALE for non-editorial purposes** SOUNDBITE 1 John Kerry (man), US secretary of State (English, 31 sec): "We're not looking for a confrontation, we're not ordering anybody; we're simply requesting under a very normal procedure for the transfer of somebody, just as we transferred to Russia seven people in the last two years that they requested, that we did without any clamour, without any rancour, without any argument and according to our sense of the appropriateness of meeting their request -- and that's what we would hope they would reciprocate with here today." - VAR of Kerry arriving in Jeddah - VAR of Kerry meeting with Prince Saud al-Faisal - VAR of Kerry before his remarks ----------------------------------------- AFP TEXT STORY US-intelligence-security-Russia-Kerry,lead Kerry urges Russia to be 'calm' and give Snowden JEDDAH, Saudi Arabia, June 25, 2013 (AFP) - US Secretary of State John Kerry called for Russia on Tuesday to be "calm" and hand over accused leaker Edward Snowden, saying Washington was not looking for "confrontation." Speaking during a visit to Saudi Arabia, Kerry said the transfer of the former government contractor -- who is believed to be in Moscow -- was a matter of rule of law after Russia sharply rejected US criticism over the case. "I would simply appeal for calm and reasonableness in a moment where we don't need to raise the level of confrontation over something as, frankly, basic and normal as this," Kerry told a news conference. "We're not looking for a confrontation, We're not ordering anybody; we're simply requesting under a very normal procedure," he said. Kerry said the United States transferred seven people on requests from Russia over the past two years "without any clamour, without any rancour, without any arguments." Kerry acknowledged that Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov was "technically" correct that the United States and Russia did not have an extradition treaty. But he said: "We would hope that as a nation, as a sovereign nation, Russia would not see its interests in siding with a person who is accused of breaking the law in another country." Snowden fled to Hong Kong after unveiling vast US surveillance operations. He flew to Russia on the way to a friendly Latin American nation and vanished in transit in Moscow. sct/al