Strikes could not have ended the violence in Syria or removed all of the (chemical weapons) which was destroyed through diplomacy.

Ben Rhodes

Categorized in : Politics

It's an unusual policy, and I think as we look at the whole totality of the relationship, this is something that we felt was worth being in the list of things that we consider.

We're also dealing with people who've suffered the horrors of war, women and children, orphans. We can't just shut our doors to those people.

We didn't expect then and we don't expect now that you can end the conflict in Syria through an opposition group, i don't think at all that this was a case of poor execution.

We're actually going after ISIL, which Russia's not doing. by Ben Rhodes

We're actually going after ISIL, which Russia's not doing.

I don't want to suggest a particular formal agreement, what I do want to emphasize is that the area where we would like to reach a greater understanding with the Chinese is on the protection of intellectual property and the ability of businesses to operate without concern of cyber theft.

We want to make sure that when we are working with our Gulf partners and Turkey ... that we have a common view in terms of which opposition deserves our support and that we're seeking to isolate more extremist elements of the opposition.

We're used to some reflexive partisanship on these issues, we're expecting there to be very strong Republican opposition, as there has been on many of our foreign and domestic priorities, but we're confident there's a growing base of support among Democrats in both the House and Senate for this deal.

If they don't grant access. by Ben Rhodes

If they don't grant access.

You could tell he was thinking about whether to do this or not, and when he did, you just felt this surge of emotion in the room ... the weight of history coming out all at once in a way that you don't ever see.

For us it was, you know, that was the person we know, that we see every day and wish the rest of the world could see.

Obviously, we recognize that the U.S.-Brazil relationship went through a turbulent patch after the disclosures that took place related to U.S. intelligence activities a couple of years ago, however, we went through a very thorough review of those activities and we worked hard, together with the Brazilian government, to address a variety of concerns, but importantly, to begin a new chapter in our bilateral relationship.

We have problems with this legislation in its own right, but our principal focus right now is, let's give time and space to the negotiators to see if they get this done, do not take action over the course of the next couple of months that could jeopardize those negotiations by backing the Iranians and the rest of the world away from the table.

We do not believe that our classified systems were compromised, we're constantly updating our security measures on our unclassified system, but we're frankly told to act as if we need not put information that's sensitive on that system.

We're constantly updating our security measures on our unclassified system but we're frankly told to act as if we need not put information that's sensitive on that system, in other words, if you're going to do something classified, you have to do it on one email system, one phone system. Frankly, you have to act as if information could be compromised if it's not on the classified system.

Part of the point was 'Look I wasn’t even born when this policy was put in place … We want to hear and talk about the future', tHE CUBANS WERE DUG IN.

The Cubans were dug in … And we did kind of get stuck on this. by Ben Rhodes

The Cubans were dug in … And we did kind of get stuck on this.

We’re in new territory here. by Ben Rhodes

We’re in new territory here.

We don't think the answer to the crisis in Ukraine is simply to inject more weapons and get into that type of tit-for-tat with Russia.

It meets the threshold of being bipartisan, high-level and people who worked very closely with Saudi Arabia over many years.

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It took us by some surprise, there's a great affinity between the United States and India and our people, but there's also a history that is complicated and that would have made it seem highly unlikely that a U.S. president would be sitting with India's leaders at their Republic Day ceremony.

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