Antony Blinken

Well, for now. But there are two problems. One is the president's painted himself into something of a corner. Even if he really wanted to improve relations with Russia for whatever reason, there's so much suspicion about the relationship…

And if the United States is not prepared to stand up when that norm is violated, I don't think anyone else will and it's vitally important to the international community if we do so.

Secretary Tillerson is going to Moscow in the middle of the next week, actually, I think he should move up the trip and go as quickly as possible, and basically say to the Russians we're going to hold you accountable for of Assad's actions…

And the larger question is, up until now, we haven't seen a lot of regular order in this administration when it comes to making foreign policy.

I totally disagree. Certainly not been my experience. I've worked in government for 24 years through three administrations, two Democratic, one Republican.

You know, Anderson, it's deeply troubling both as a matter of process and a matter of substance.

If we're part of trying to take that apart, we're playing Russia's game.

I think General McMaster's going to have three challenges as he assumes this job.

I hope preserving the nuclear agreement which has been good for our security, good for the security of our allies and partners around the world.

It's a terrific choice. He is one of the leading generals of his generation, both in the field, in the classroom he's really a leading intellectual, a thought leader when it comes to military and strategic matters.

The number one priority right now has to be continuing and succeeding in the effort against ISIL, against the Islamic State.

We strongly support Prime Minister Abadi's leadership on reform and reconciliation.

The civil war in Syria is not about us, nor can it be solved solely by us.

Unless Russia takes immediate steps to end the assault on Aleppo... the United States will suspend U.S.-Russia bilateral engagement.

We have built an international coalition with 67 partners.

We believe that the effort that we have made to reach this agreement with Russia was the best way to effectively move toward ending the civil war.

We will not fully succeed in destroying Daesh until we resolve the civil war in Syria.

This cannot be and, indeed, is not just a military effort.

It will be this effort that ensures that Daesh, once defeated, stays defeated.

The humanitarian catastrophe... is a direct outgrowth of Assad's vengeance against his own people.

Senator Cardin, I think you are exactly right that in a sense the harder questions are almost what follows the military defeat of Daesh in Iraq and certainly in Syria.

Our primary task is to defeat Daesh, which poses the most immediate threat to our citizens, to our country, to our allies and partners.

The conflict continues to be fueled by patrons and proxies with very divergent interests.

The U.S. must provide more decisive leadership to protect the civilian population.

But this opportunity is matched by urgency.