Speaking with reporters on Thursday, Secretary of State Marco Rubio was asked about his administration's diplomatic engagements with the Syrian interim authority.
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00:00Mr. Secretary, on Syria, you met with the delegation today.
00:04Can you tell us your impressions?
00:06And also, did you get any reassurances on some of the requests you made,
00:11including asking all foreign fighters to leave the country?
00:13Yeah, look, I think that obviously this is a new relationship.
00:16We've now known each other and known them for 24 hours.
00:20So it's one that we think that a peaceful, stable Syria
00:25would be one of the most dramatic improvements in the region in a very long time.
00:32And we want to do everything we can to help achieve that.
00:35We have governing authorities there now who have expressed, not openly and repeatedly,
00:40that this is a nationalistic movement designed to build their country
00:44in a pluralistic society in which all the different elements of Syrian society
00:48are able to live together.
00:50They've expressed an interest in being at peace with all of their neighbors, including Israel.
00:54They've expressed an interest in driving out foreign fighters and terrorists
00:57and others that would destabilize the country and are enemies of this transitional authority.
01:01And they've asked for our help.
01:03And so we're going to try to help them.
01:05Now, obviously, we want to see progress made.
01:06And we'll take every step that they take.
01:08And it'll be a long road because it's been a long time.
01:11So we recognize that.
01:12But this is a historic opportunity.
01:14And if it succeeds, we'll have a dramatic transformative effect on the region.
01:17I would say that Syria is a place where people of different faiths and backgrounds
01:23have lived alongside each other for a very long time.
01:26It's only in the last 10 years under Assad's rule, brutal rule,
01:30where he gassed and murdered his own people,
01:32where he created chaos that allowed foreign fighters to flow into the country
01:36and use it as a playground to conduct external attacks,
01:39where Iran saw an opportunity to come in and sponsor their groups
01:42that turned it into a terrorist highway to empower Hezbollah.
01:46It's only in the last 10 years that you've seen 6 to 8 million people
01:50driven out of that country.
01:51So we want to be helpful.
01:52The president said if they want to take these steps forward,
01:55we're going to do what we can working with our partners in the region to help them.
01:59And I hope it's successful because if it is, there's two routes here.
02:03One will be success and we'll have a major transformation in the region.
02:07Or you're going to have a brutal civil war that will destabilize the region.
02:10We would prefer the former, not the latter.
02:12And we're going to do everything we can within our control to help effectuate that.
02:19Ultimately, it'll be up to the leaders there on the ground to make it happen.
02:21And they face some significant challenges, there's no doubt.
02:24The good news is that there are regional partners like Turkey, like Saudi Arabia,
02:27like Qatar, like the UAE, who are willing to contribute.
02:30And frankly, the lifting of sanctions, its first effects will be felt because,
02:36not because U.S. dollars are going to flow in,
02:37but because our regional partners will now be able to flow in dollars that will allow them not just to stand up a government
02:43that can provide basic services, but also will allow them the work of reconstruction.
02:49One of the things they expressed today, and they're asking for our help,
02:52is to identify weapons of mass destruction, chemical weapons and so forth,
02:57identify these sites and remove them from the country.
03:00As they expressed today, they are victims of the use of chemical weapons.
03:03They don't want these chemical weapons stored in their country anywhere.
03:07But, you know, you don't just go in and grab a bunch of chemical weapons and put them in a truck.
03:12It requires technical expertise to both identify where they're located and remove them safely.
03:17And they've asked for our help in that regard, and we're going to be willing to provide it.
03:20On the lifting of sanctions, obviously that's a pretty complicated process.
03:24Do you have a timeline for how long you think that might take?
03:27And also, how much advance notice was the State Department and Treasury given to sort of start that wind down?
03:32Well, this is a road we were on, so we've been doing the work, the prep work for it.
03:38Their finance minister, we provided him a visa to travel to Washington, D.C. two weeks ago.
03:43Their foreign minister, we provided him a visa a week ago to travel to New York and met with our U.N. representative.
03:49I was scheduled to come here and meet today with the foreign minister.
03:53I was with the president when he made the decision to do this and included it in his speech.
03:57So we've been doing preparatory work in that regard.
03:59The core of these sanctions are statutory under the CESAR Act.
04:03I've had members of Congress and both parties ask us to use the waivers' authorities in that law.
04:10And that's what the president intends to do.
04:12Those waivers have to be renewed every 180 days.
04:16Ultimately, if we make enough progress, we'd like to see the law repealed,
04:19because you're going to struggle to find people to invest in a country when in six months sanctions could come back.
04:26We're not there yet. That's premature.
04:28I think we want to start with the initial waiver, which will allow foreign partners who wanted to flow in aid
04:34to begin to do so without running the risk of sanctions.
04:36I think as we make progress, hopefully we'll be in a position soon or one day
04:40to go to Congress and ask them to permanently remove the sanctions.
04:43So, let's move to theangerine.
04:44Please!
04:44All right!
04:45All right!
04:49Let's move to Congress everything!