Pressure from multiple directions across the battlefield in syria and iraq. As we have said from the start, this fight cannot be one in the military sphere. It will require a political solution to the crisis. One thing is certain. The vast majority of states around this table know the isil forces, isil itself, cannot be defeated as long as Bashar Alassad remains president of syria. It cannot happen by definition of the lines of this battle, because who is lined up with whom, and the nature of these protagonists. The reason is defined in the beginning by how this fight itself began. This fight began when young people, young syrians looking for a future wanting nothing more than opportunity and jobs, and education, when they went out to demonstrate for the future. And to claim the aspirations of young people. Assad sent his thugs to beat them up. They were outraged by the fact theirldren where children were being not. They were met with bullets. That is how this whole thing began. People in a country looking for a future who were instead met with repression, torture, gassing, barrel bonds, assad will never be accepted by those he has harmed, never possible to become a legitimate leader in the future, never possible to lead a reconciliation or reunification of a country. That could not happen until he makes clear his willingness to heal the nation, in the war, and declined to be part of the longterm future. Today we must be focused on finding the solution that will stop the killing and lay the groundwork for a government the Syrian People themselves can support. We know the terrorists can neither unite the country nor govern it. We know that assad can neither unite the country nor govern it. Neither extreme offers the solution that we need and want. What is more, our ability to develop a credible International Political process would be a farce from the beginning, incredible enough it will not stop people from fighting. If it were perceived as a way to extend or strengthen assads hold on power. As obama said on monday the United States is prepared to work with any nation, including russia and they ran and iran to resolve the conflict. There cannot be after so much bloodshed and carnage a simple return to the prewar status quo. My colleagues, the government of russia has argue with must support assad to defeat isil. Hasreality is that assad rarely chosen himself to fight isil. As the terrace made inroads throughout large swaths of syria and iraq, raping, enslaving, murdering civilians along the way, the Syrian Regime did not try to stop them. Faithfully they focused on moderate Opposition Groups fighting for a voice in syria. Make no mistake. The answer to the Syrian Civil War cannot be found in a military alliance with assad. Im convinced that it can be found. It can be found through a broad support Diplomatic Initiative and at a political transition that has been accepted by the Security Council and participants of the arm five perm five. In conclusion, i call on all concerned governments including russia and syria to support a Human Initiative to broker a political transition. Further delay is unconscionable. The opportunity is before us. If we can succeed in marginalizing the terrorists and bringing the country together, we can do exactly what this was set up to do. The Security Council and this institution. We could strike a huge blow against extremism in syria, also in iraq, across the middle east and around the world. Nothing would be more in keeping with the purpose for which this council was created. Nothing would better serve the interests of the people that all of us are present. I hope we can achieve that. Thank you. Later, john kerry and Sergey Lavrov spoke to reporters about the russian airstrikes. They spoke at the United Nations. Mr. Lavrov we met with secretary kerry for the third time in a few days. To whated our meeting our president agreed when they met here on the 28th of september. Us torst instructional make sure the military the United States, the Coalition Led by the United States and the military of the russian syriation now engaged in at the request the Syrian Government get in touch and establish channels of communications to avoid any unintended incidents. We agreed the military should get into contact with each other soon. Number two, we discussed what the president told us about the voting political process. We all want syria democratic, united, secular. A home for all groups. Whose rights are guaranteed. We have some differences as for the details on how to get there. We agree there are some steps we togeundertake very soon ther with other countries including the United Nations on creating the conditions for the appliedto be used to be to promote the political process. Is aieve that this meeting very useful occasion, to promote constructive and safe approaches to the situation in syria. We have agreed to remain in touch with john and always were available for contacting each other. Thank you for a much. Kerry he has described the meeting we had which we would concur as a constructive meeting. I relayed and reiterated the concerns i expressed in the course of the un Security Council meeting led by russia concerns that we have of the nature of the targets and the need for clarity with respect to them. Targetinging to be isil. We are concerned that is not what is happening. You, we agreedto on the imperative of as soon as possible, as soon as tomorrow, as soon as possible having a military to military d confliction. Whatever can be done as soon as possible. Emergency ofhe that d confliction. Number ofcuss a different ways to try to address the conflict itself. Agreed totions were be further discussed. I need to take those back to washington to the president and our team. I am sure sergey will discuss them with president putin and his team. We will follow up on that for certain. We also agreed that it is imperative to find a solution to this conflict to avoid or seat and intensified by forces beyond anyones control. The foreign minister agreed there is, even as we dont yet have a resolution with respect , weome critical choices think we have specific steps that may be able to help lead in the right direction. That needs to be properly explored. We agree we have a lot of work to do. Were going to get to doing that work as rapidly as possible. Isunderstand how urgent this. We need to see syria kept unified, secular, democratic. Those are big agreements in that regard. Touch istay in close continue to work on this. Thank you all very much. Next, Committee Chair bob corker talks about the russian airstrikes in syria. Syrian refugees, and the nuclear deal. Interviewed by ben rose of the washington ideas forum. Good morning. It is my honor to talk to the rman of the senate texas would not exist without tennessee. And ou an architect of the iran nuclear agreement. I believe we have to start with the situation in syria. Obama talkesident about a managed transition for the assad regime. A very different tone than he has taken when he said assad had to go. Is there a shift . Is it a smart thing to do this . Mr. Corker there continues to be an evolution. Assad is the singular poll for isis in if you look at what is happening there, we had a hearing yesterday. Of of us see the tragedy what has occurred. In many ways we are reaping what we sowed as we were talking backstage. Tenurethe yugoslav episode, 10,000 people were killed. 4 million were displaced. We have blown by those numbers in a short time. 240,000 people are dead. 11 Million People displaced. This is a human tragedy of epic proportions. Obviously we have missed opportunities when it was evident we could make a difference relative to what happened on the ground. Particularly in august and september of 2013. Operation, no boots on the ground, no flags over syria that couldve changed the momentum met at a time when we did have a moderate opposition. Opportunities to support them in an appropriate way. Beeni know there have memos on the president staff to deal with the border of turkey which would have served two purposes. To seal the border of turkey, people are flying into turkey and syria and iraq. We could have provided a place for aid to be given inside the country. As we continue to miss opportunity after opportunity, no doubt things are evolving. One then you have to say about he knowing he is going to get no pushback, continues to thrust out. We have people all the time and they reset conversations they have with him. They asked him why he has been so overt in Foreign Policy with so many domestic issues within his own country. He sees no pushback, no price to pay. What it is doing is raising his popularity within the country as they see russia coming into greatness from their perspective. That is continuing on the ground. We continue to let things evolve and make their own course. Things are changing. I dont know where this goes with russia and iran. We are at least open to discussing the future with them. Susan thinking about the changing role of russia, russian warplanes have begun bombing targets in syria. Should we have u. S. Push back to that . Mr. Corker we have received reporting this morning, i dont know if it is true or not, we have received reporting even instead of targeting isis, we have received reports by some people that they are even hitting rebel camps. Not people affiliated with isis. , obviously things have to be deconflicted. Somehow us andat other western friends and sunni alleys allies will create areas within syria or humanitarian aid can be given, where you can coalesce be taking back of territory by those people who are not extreme. But i see as things evolve it is unlikely the administration is going to take steps to do that. Susan critics say obama has mishandled the situation in syria from the start. Defender say it is an impossible situation destined to generate [indiscernible] at i read look those stories this morning. I know there is always going to be a day virgins of opinion. I believe during that timeframe in 20 where there was a moment, an opportunity, during a 10 hour operation to degrade his ability to deliver chemical operations from the air, which would have bombs deliver the barrel we are dealing with now, there was a moment where there was the Free Syrian Army and it was real. I dont think anybody would debate that. It israel. Action, itaking that took the wind out of their sales. Lap. Mped in putins a the administration talks about doing away with the declared weapons. Assad has not declared them all. He is using chemical weapons now against his citizens. That was the biggest moment of opportunity. I think it was mishandled. They pushback. I think they created consternation. The west, our friends in europe and ourselves, we could have taken some action that would have made a difference, and in most peoples opinion we didnt. I will Say Something else that has been damaging, we have lost so much credibility. Im in the region constantly. It heard us significantly as far as people believing they could rely on what we as a country say. I stood with the president. I believe when the president says there is a redline, it is something that whether you are republican or democrat, you should stand behind. Authorization during a recess. We came back at a high moment of the Foreign Relations committee. We did not take those steps. Susan one of the consequences is the flood of refugees we see in europe. Given our role in the world, and the role in this conflict, does the United States have an obligation to do more to address this crisis, not only sending money and a but accepting a significantly increased number of refugees . Mr. Corker we are the largest contributor of aid. People need to understand that. The countries together in europe now have surpassed us. As a country, we are the largest. We are the largest taker of refugees each year. Each year we taken 70,000 each year. The administration has proposed we take in 85,000 instead of 70. In the next your we taken 100,000 instead of 85,000. Congress will look at that. The likelihood is it will be supported. Assad almost if facade. Millions of people are flooding into europe. We are not dealing with people you are seeing on the tv screams. This is a huge disconnect. It takes 18 months to two years to vet people and bring the men. The amount of syrians that will be part of that 85,000 number is 2500. At the end of the day, what you would think is that we and others would want to do, the syrians are people like you and i. They want to raise families and dignity. Hope for visions of the future like people in this audience. You would think we would try to deal with the root cause. Instead of this thing that is occurring relative to people coming in because of the procedures that take place, that we would want to you with the root cause on the ground. No foreign entity will conmen and change the dynamic on the ground. When you know that he is the root cause of all of this that isg, he is the one torturing people in manners that i have stop saying in public because it is so grotesque. Things that took place a thousand years ago but he is inflicting that today as we sit here in this nice theater, he is doing that. I would hope our efforts would be more toward dealing with syria and such a fashion that syrians can live in their own country. Susan lets talk about afghanistan. The taliban have captured control in the north. It is their biggest military victory in a decade. Does this mean that the United States should reconsider the plan to withdraw most u. S. Forces from afghanistan by the end of next are given the lessons of iraq . Is it going to be necessary to make a longerterm commitment . Mr. Corker certainly, this was a major change on the ground. We have not had this activity and a long time. Grounditary folks on the understand that if we take it down to 34000 troops, all they are doing is the military has a huge footprint. They are there to protect their own people. That is their first concern. But we have the ability to protect them, to care for them if they have injuries. Takes a big footprint. If you take it down to 34000, all you are really doing is protecting yourself. We do have to rethink that. The turn of events on the ground that is being gained by the taliban is hugely disappointing. We have to rethink it as we see the momentum taking place on the ground. All the human resources, all the casualties, how does anything change so when we look forward, when one day we do with, how do we make things different there . I visited where we have been training. Ill tell you it is pretty when you look at the people we are training and their allegiance to deal with the issues, it is disheartening to see the amount of dollars spent in those training operations. When you see sometimes that we care more about what happens relative to things on the ground and they do it is disheartening. Certainly if you break it you own it, he is going to be here later, our nation and others have learned a great deal from that. There is something to be learned from breaking it and leaving it, which is what the administration did in libya. We are in it. We obviously the footprint is majorly different. The casualties are being taken on by now. I think more patience and persistence is warranted with the changes being taken place. Susan you negotiated a bipartisan bill that got through the senate in the to approve numbers to provide congressional review of the iran nuclear deal. You were supportive of the disapproval, unable to get a vote on that. Did you achieve what you had hoped to achieve when you devise that bill . Rememberr you have to when we devise the bill none of , hadd any idea, most of us no idea what the agreement was going to say. If you look at where we have been, the executive branch has consumed power away from the legislative branch. Most people has eroded this over time. It was an effort to bring power back. The president would negotiate an executive agreement. Decideat means is he can , and it doesnt have the force of power after he leaves. That is the way most president s are doing things now to keep from coming to congress. The strongest is a treaty. Many president s are moving away from those types of agreements. Was going to go straight to the un Security Council without congressional approval. Because congress has played such a role in bringing iran to the table, we passed sanctions that many people believe for the most crippling sanctions, and because we have played that role i was able to convince thankfully people on the other side of the isle it was appropriate that before those sanctions were to at least have a vote of approval or disapproval, to see the agreement, to see the classified annexes, so yes we achieved a step in the legislative branch beginning to take back power. The American People understand this agreement more than any agreement that has taken place in modern times. The fact is we understand it. It is a longwinded answer but the agreement is obviously going to take place. This, a givese of congress oversight. If you look at north korea, a deal was done, nobody paid attention, they have a nuclear weapon. , theagreement gives us president has to certify every 90 days they are in compliance. There is a host of documents that have to be given to us. It keeps us in this in an oversight capacity forever. Susan we are out of time. Thank you. [applause] please welcome Deputy National security advisor ben rhodes. [applause] good morning, everyone. En, ive always wanted to get you on the couch, actually, so if you want to lie down, psychoanalyze mr. Rhodes everybody else doing this. Tot i would love to get up 30,000 feet as quickly as possible, but we have to talk about the news of the morning and of the week. Engaged inpparently airstrikes on what it says are isis targets. Hasppears that russia formed an alliance with iraq, iran, our target, syria. There is a feeling and republicans circles and in washington that putin is the activist in the middle east, that your boss is risen is withdrawing as quickly as he can, with possibly dire consequences. Tell us the thinking in