During a State Department press briefing on Thursday, Principal Deputy spokesperson Tommy Pigott was asked about the United States' recognition of the interim Syrian Government.
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00:00Thank you. Thank you, Tommy. A question on Syria. After the President's meeting with the Syrian interim president and today's meeting between Secretary Robbio and the Syrian foreign minister, do you recognize the Syrian interim authority now, or do you still hold your previous position on that?
00:18Well, look, what we want to see in taking a step back is Syria takes certain actions that were detailed in the readout the White House put out. We've also seen the Secretary discuss this in terms of movement forward.
00:28I don't necessarily want to get ahead of where that movement might be, but ultimately just to reinforce the fact that, as the President said, we want to give Syria a chance at greatness, and we are working now to implement what the President announced in his speech in Saudi Arabia.
00:41And Secretary Robbio was touching the importance of protecting the human rights of all Syrians. We have seen this interim authority were violating many international laws, and they were even harassing the Jews people and the Kurdish,
00:58and the Christians. What's your position on these minority rights in Syria after you met with the Syrian foreign minister and after the President's meeting with Ahmad al-Shara?
01:09Well, again, not going to discuss the private diplomatic conversations that were happening in that regard.
01:13We have been clear in regards to any nation that we have certain expectations, and there have been expectations that the President has communicated to Syria regarding a whole host of actions.
01:23And again, those actions that we're hoping that they take are hand-in-hand with this announcement in terms of lifting sanctions, that opportunity to achieve greatness.
01:31So it's the cessation of sanctions, but also the actions we're hoping to see them take would then contribute to that, that long peace, that prosperity that the President and Secretary want to see for the entire region.
01:45Yes.
01:46Back to Ukraine and Russian talk.