Your government and the United States government seems to be miles apart on the syria issue, ukraine and other issues. Did you feel that youve cleared up any of those issues you mentioned earlier today since youve had those discussions with Secretary Tillerson . We did discuss at length the future role for assad, whether it be in a future political process or not. Clearly our view is that the reign of the assad family is coming to an end. And they have, again, brought this on themselves with their conduct and war these past few years. We discussed our view that russia, as their closest ally in the conflict, perhaps has the best means of helping assad recognize this reality. We do think its important that assads departure is done in an orderly way, an orderly way, so
achieved. This is a very high legal hurdle in order to bring such charges against an individual, so i would not suggest to you that all of that evidence is in place. But i think the longer time goes by, its possible that th
conference for over half an hour and really didn t give an inch to each other, as you point out, secretary of state tillerson said relations are at a low point. he talked at one point about a steady degradation of relations. they were completely on opposite sides when it came to syria and assad s responsibility. i would have to say, i wouldn t give tillerson quite as strong as high grades as you apparently did, melissa. i thought you could see a contrast between sergi lavrov, who seemed very comfortable and completely unyielding, giving long complicated answers, in which he went back to u.s. foreign policy in kosovo and iraq and libya, and sudan, to say that the u.s. seems to have this fixation with ousting dictators and countries end up in much worse shape afterwards.
tillerson giving brief and not nearly as aggressive answers as lavrov did. he didn t seem to want to come looking for a fight. lavrov was very comfortable looking for a fight and taking the argument very much to the u.s. melissa: yeah. i thought lavrov was noticeably more aggressive and, frankly, dominated the news conference. melissa: he did hit very hard, especially on that point. he went through the litany of history of what has happened when secular deck taters have been deposed and how badly that has worked out for the u.s. tillerson was clear on what he thought assad s future role was. let s listen to that an get your reaction. we did discuss at length the future role for assad, whether it be in a future political process or not. clearly, our view is that the reign of the assad family is coming to an end.
it is possible that the threshold necessary to charge individuals including bashar al-assad may be achieved. melissa: chris, it s very clear where they disagree, right? is there any chance to come together? well, that s the point. that s kind of what tillerson s been saying for the last few days. that s fine. we don t like assad. we d like to see him out. but he s got tremendous support from iran and from russia. and there wasn t the slightest hint on the part of sergei lavrov that the kremlin is going to back off its full support for al-assad. at the very end he said, just remember, we came in at the request of a legitimate government, no u.n. sanctions. he made a very interesting charge near the end where he suggested that the u.s. seemeded, while going after isis, they weren t going after an off shoot of al qaeda and seemed to suggest that we would be perfectly okay with an al qaeda regime taking over in
your government and the united states government seems to be miles apart on the syria issue, ukraine and other issues. did you feel that you ve cleared up any of those issues you mentioned earlier today since you ve had those discussions with secretary tillerson? we did discuss at length the future role for assad, whether it be in a future political process or not. clearly our view is that the reign of the assad family is coming to an end. and they have, again, brought this on themselves with their conduct and war these past few years. we discussed our view that russia, as their closest ally in the conflict, perhaps has the best means of helping assad recognize this reality. we do think it s important that assad s departure is done in an orderly way, an orderly way, so