I think what we're hopeful is through this Syrian process, working with coalition members, working with the U.N., and in particular working through the Geneva process, that we can navigate a political outcome in which the Syrian people, in fact, will determine Bashar al-Assad's fate and his legitimacy.

Our priority in Syria, really hasn't changed. I think the President Donald Trump has been quite clear. First and foremost, we must defeat ISIS.

I don't believe anyone doubts the American people's values or the commitment of the American government or the government's agencies to advancing those values and defending those values.

President Xi Jinping clearly understands, and I think agrees, that the situation in North Korea has intensified and has reached a certain level of threat that action has to be taken. And, indeed, the Chinese, even themselves, have said that they do not believe the conditions are right to engage in discussions with the government in Pyongyang. And so what I think we're hopeful is that we can work together with the Chinese to change the conditions in the minds of the DPRK leadership.

I think the President Donald Trump was quite clear in his statement that he made to the American people that Syria's continued violations of U.N. resolutions and previous agreements that Syria had entered into regarding the Chemical Weapons Accord would no longer be tolerated. I think we have stood by and watched multiple weapon - chemical weapons attacks by the Syrian regime under the leadership of Bashar al-Assad.

We've seen what violent regime change looks like in Libya and the kind of chaos that can be unleashed. And, indeed, the kind of misery that it enacts on its own people.

I think the Russians have played now for some time the role of providing cover for Bashar al-Assad's behavior. The alternative explanation that the Russians put forth is simply not plausible.