Philip H. Gordon: “It is in the core U.S. national interest to sustain the democracies that we have promoted for 20 years and who are now…”

To allow locals... to interfere with freedom of movement... would be a slippery slope that would be dangerous for the whole region.

I think that such an escalation would lead not to the regime's capitulation that we want to see, but rather to a new counter-escalation.

We have been disappointed. We waited for some time for last October's elections... but the political leaders have failed to reach an agreement.

If we're not satisfied after this back-and-forth... sanctions go back in place. That's new and different.