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.

The military progress both in Syria and in Iraq has been remarkable since President Donald Trump's inauguration. We have continued to liberate areas. We are making tremendous progress in liberating Mosul in Iraq, working with coalition forces, we're moving to position to liberate Raqqa.

We're hopeful that Russia will choose to play a constructive role in supporting ceasefires through their own Astana talks, but also, ultimately, through Geneva. And if we can achieve ceasefires in zones of stabilization in Syria, then I believe we will have the conditions to begin a useful political process.

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.

It's important that we keep our priorities straight. And we believe that the first priority is the defeat of ISIS. That by defeating ISIS and removing their caliphate from their control, we've now eliminated at least or minimized a particular threat not just to the United States, but to the whole stability in the region.

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.

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.