bashar assad who we do not believe has a role in syria's future because of his brutal rule. his war against the syrian people is the primary root cause of this crisis. what is different this time and what gives us some degree of hope is that, as i said, for the first time all the major countries on all sides of the syrian conflict agree on a process that is needed to end this war. and so while we are very clear-eyed about the very, very difficult road still ahead, the united states in our partnership with our coalition is going to remain relentless on all fronts -- military, humanitarian and diplomatic. we have the right strategy and we're going to see it through. with that i'm going to take some questions and i will begin with jerome cartellia of afp. >> thank you, mr. president.