It is a true honor to be here with all of you serving at the state department. There have been so many incredible Foreign Service officers and Civil Servants were dedicated their career to this country, with help prepare for this role. Id like to thank all of you. Id like to thank you, the press corps, for your patience on a job that you do each and every day in covering the state department. Ive met many of you, had a chance to talk with you, and i know how passionate you are about the issues as well as press coverage. You are wellinformed and i look forward to working with you more closely every day. This new faces in the room today, even to the old hat here, youll recognize the new people. Some of them have taken great personal risk to be here and to do their job. They been forced to leave their countries, including syria and afghanistan because they been threatened with physical harm or worse. That is a good reminder during their inspiration for all of us. About why were here talk about Foreign Policy. We see how it inspires and affects others around the world. As a former journalist, i pledged to work with you to get you answers in a timely fashion and advocate for greater access to information. Ive been here little more than a month and many of you have graciously understood how long it takes to prepare for this role. Thanks for some of you who were provided with that patience. During this time, we try to fill your insatiable appetite for news with other news items of great interest. We have brought in some of our acting assistant secretaries, speak about venezuela, speak about north korea, speak about syria and other issues. Some of these have been on camera, as you know, others have been phone briefings. One of the phone briefings had nearly 100 reporters on that call. Thank you for your participation in that and we look forward to bringing you more as news warrants. A couple of things i want to get to that are happening today, secretary is returning to washington dc tomorrow for the annual meeting. This time it was held in australia and they stopped in new zealand. In australia the secretary matter met with our counterpart to talk about cooperation in the asiapacific and beyond and also rolling back north Koreas Nuclear and Ballistic Missile program. They also talked about feeding isis and the work of forces are we will perform shoulder to shoulder in places like afghanistan. In afghanistan today, the United States participated in the global that was to me by the afghan government. That brings together 30 International Partners to hold candid conversations about methods to advance key and connectivity for afghanistan and the region. The Conference Also reaffirmed our shared commitment to our afghan friends, to Regional Security and to fight against terrorism and extremism. The fact that this meeting took place less than a week after the horrific terror attack took place in kabul, that killed 150 and injured many more, showed how resilient the people of afghanistan are. They forged ahead and the defiance of terror and are working to promote peace. We continue to stand by our afghan partners. I will take your questions. Ive met many of you, i do not and it will all of your names. Please give me your name and news outlet. Thank you heather and thank you for your opening remarks. It is great have someone on the podium again. As you know will come to know the weeks and months and maybe years ahead, this is a very important and valuable platform. For this town and around the world, for you guys to get your message out, for us to dig deeper into that message so we can explain it to the american inform publics. Also performed government so they can understand policy direction. I hope well see more of you out there. With that, i have two extremely brief things before get to the major news of the day which is obviously the birth of George Clooneys twins. [laughter] i am not aware that. Congratulations. You are busy preparing. I want to ask you if this has anything to say about the regulation of mr. Ranke. Youre talking about the affair in beijing in china. His decision was a personal decision. If you will give me the grace as i go through my book care, this is a pretty meaty book. That was considered a personal decision. We know that he spoke with staff there. We appreciate his years of dedicated service to the state department and for anything more on that i have to refer you to mr. Ranke as to his decision why he decided. Secondly, late last night there is a statement that when out in your name about the death of the head of in which you said he was a tireless advocate for women and girls at if that is the position of the administration in this building, that the dr. And the unfpa have done this good work, why are you cutting funding for . We would send out that announcement because he pass that away. He has done a lot of good work over the years on behalf of the United Nations in that arena. We wanted to express our condolences for his family and thank him for the time he has performed at work. In terms of the administrations priorities, Womens Health is an important matter. The president has had to look at garbage it budget. But you still believe that the unfpa does good work . Im not going to characterize if it does good work or not. I will say the president had to look at, as had the state Department Look at priorities and make good decisions. Not all things are going to be funded the way others would like them to be funded in the public. The major news of the day, which would be dart. I think a lot of us including people in the gulf are trying to figure out what exactly the presidency tweets about this mean in terms of the u. S. Position as it relates to not just but the whole gulf region and iran. Whether or not the secretary is going to informal offer to mediate or help reduce tensions. Does that still stand . One of the things important to us, we recognize that cutter has made some great efforts have tried to stop financing of finance groups. However, let me make this clear, the have made progress but they still have work to do but more work needs to be done. So the president s tweets dont to or do have some policy shift in the region away from them and perhaps towards the saudis . I think our relationship with qatar is one that we continue to operate the fight against terrorism. The secretary talked about this today. He said every country in the region has an obligation and they need to live up to terminate their support however it manifests itself in the world. Barbara. Did you give any advance warning about this decision to cut ties to qatar . You just said that it needs to do more work in terms of the terrorists, would you say the saudi state to do more work or have they done everything they need to . Im not went to characterize with the saudis have done or not done. The United States in general terms continues to talk to our partners, especially our partners in the Isis Coalition about things they can do better. The secretary talked about that very thing. All countries combined areas in which they can improve their cooperation. To your question about if we are informed of the decision, yes, we were informed of that decision. It was only immediately prior to the in announcement be a made. Qatar is one of the closest allies of the United States. [inaudible question] what do you want them to do . The clamping down on the finances, what else you want them to do to get back in the good graces of the United States and saudi arabia . First, i would say that the United States and the coalition is grateful from qatar from their longstanding support of our presence there. They have helped to provide us with enduring commitment to Regional Security. The department of offense has talked about this. We have no plans to change a posture there and we would encourage you partners to Work Together to reduce tensions that is something the secretary spoke to us about. Thank you. A couple of questions. If this a rotarian president had no warning from the saudis that this was about to happen, what does this say about the depth of the relationship and the transparency of the relationship . Secondly on that subject of the summit, from a very wellknown former National Security and cia analyst who has worked closely with many administrations over the decades, he just said over 110 billion is it basically rhetorical and not real . One of the things youre talking about is the weapon sales package which was announced. The president and secretary attended that ceremony. 110 billion with a Foreign Military sales. The letters of author and acceptance for future defense capabilities are under development. The dip package of the defense equipment and im not an expert on defense equipment, you could speak more with the department of defense on that. It is in support of a longterm security of saudi arabia and the gulf region as they face threats and iran. We see it as bolstering their ability to contribute to counterterrorism efforts. Also operations around the region which would reduce the burden on u. S. Military to conduct some of its operations. We see that is a good thing. We want to encourage our partners and friends in the region to do more so we are not necessarily having to carry the heavy load all of the time. That package demonstrates that the United States commitment to its relationship with saudi arabia and expanding opportunities for American Companies in the region. The saudis are looking at it not as the concrete deal. There are Many Companies of all. I can give you a list of the companies and you can reach out to them. The fact that we did not know about qatar until moments before. My understanding is that we learned it just prior. The other aspect. It many people we need to get to. Their people quietly on both parties that the nomination process this at the state department. At all levels nominations have not come forward which is not a case suggested by some us were in the city and by some tweets that votes are holding up in the state department. Is it a deliberate decision a to wait to nominate people until after the study is completed . I would take issue first with the premise of your question. There are people moving through the pipeline. We have just seen, for example, Terry Branstad will become the next ambassador to china. We expect that soon. There are lots of people in the pipeline as im sure you can understand. In the private sector, human resources. Man finished please . We cannot always give you all of the information you want about each of the candidates. That is something we need to keep closely held in some instances. We can say this, the secretary has been very pleased with the bunch of people we have at the state department. Ive been working in the building for the past five weeks and have met many of the people who have been fantastic, ongoing representatives of this body. They have been professional from the career Civil Servants to foreign officers on down. In terms of ambassadorship and appointees, i want to address that. I know a lot of you have questions about that. We have both career noncareer candidates have been identified under going to the clearance process. Many of you have not been through the clearance process before. I went through a smaller version of the clearance process. It takes months. Ambassadors have to go through even more. Then he not just their intron security clearances, they need their full security clearances. It is going to take longer. Financial betting they have to go through. This takes time, that is a matter of fact. Plenty people in the pipeline, not just for ambassadorship but also throughout an acronym, pa, the president ial association of prospects. We have to move on. I think i answered that. There are lots of people in the pipeline right now. We will expect mornings coming forward. I just should we respect more resignation to follow suit for the same reason to the withdrawing on the paris agreement. Secondly i have another question on russia. Okay, i am not a wheres the personal decision at this time. More to come . Again, im not aware personal decisions at the time. 75000 people work at the state department. I dont have more information. Secretary tillerson said that a new ceiling President Trump has asked him to begin every Engagement Process with russia. With secretary tillerson like to see the United States sanctions against russia lifted to help with relations . One of the things he talked about a new ceiling to or perhaps yesterday prior to flying back, he talked about the low level of trust between the United States and russia. It is at a low level. The president asked the secretary to begin every Engagement Process with russia to first stabilize that relationship and look for areas in which we can cooperate together. An example includes isis. Were going to identify areas of mutual interest where we can Work Together. It is important to note that in areas where we do not see i tried with russia, well continue to stand up for our interests, values, and the values of our partners. Does the state Department Share concerns with congress over allegation of russia interference in the u. S. Democratic process. What should u. S. Do to stop russia from that. The secretary has talked about this himself. He has spoken about it in various interviews. I cant do any better than quote from what he said and sell. It has been welldocumented, i do not think there is any question that russians were playing around in our electoral process. The real impact is that it served yet again to undermine the trust between the United States and russia. We have a lot of work to do. We heard the secretary talk about the qatar situation. Then we saw tweets from the president on it that seemed to be at odds on that. That is not the first time we have seen that dynamic inform policy. How does the secretary feel about the president tweeting . This is something the secretary has addressed. Among the things you said about it is that this is serving the president well. The secretary says i do not attend to advise him on how he had to communicate, that is up to him. Well let that stand. How does the secretary feel about the way london has handled its most recent attack . In particular the mayor of london. We stand shoulder to shoulder with their british friends and allies, we have no stronger, greater ally than the british. We have experienced terrorism as have they with two attacks of the past week or so alone. We will continue to stand by and support the British Government as they do that. That is firm and clear. I dont think so we will always be a strong ally with the British Government and people. Looking at the un human rights, can he say whether the secretary supports threats to withdraw from that body and did her office clear that speech with the state department before she gave a . Ambassador haley in geneva today, before the United Nations there and one of the things she has make clear is her sincere interest in the administrations interest in reform at the United Nations. She was before the Human Rights Council today. One of the things she has said is that the Human Rights Council needs to earn its name. We should cut people in Human Rights Council who belong there. Who dont just make pledges to be there, they have records that allow them to be there. She said we have to change the elections at the United Nations so countries are forced to make the case for their membership based on the records and not promises. So did she clear the speech with the state department before she gave it . I am not aware she did or not. A besser haley and secretary tillerson worked closely together. We work closely together with United Nations with the mission there. Waistcoats more wire folks in here. Connor. Just to go back to qatar. Does the ministration believe that president s trip to saudi arabia has any effect on their decision to cut ties . Ask me that again. Does the ministration believe that the president s trip has any effect on their decision to cut ties with qatar . I think the meaning in their aware starting to lose sight of this. The meeting there was about cooperation. Cooperation to fight against extremism, to fight against terrorism and isis. One of the things that was agreed upon by all of the entities there is that that is a priority and one thing we can Work Together on. That was the message then, who ended up cutting ties anyway . There are always going to be issues that individual countries have with one another. What they agree to is the topline issue of working together to fight extremism. I do not think that is going to change. The president said that his trip was quote, paying off. What did he mean by that . I would have to refer you to the white house on the question. In the aftermath of the attack in london, the u. S. Embassy in london support of the president of the United States tweeted criticism. Heavy bank event guidance on how to respond to president ial tweets . Should they regard them as policy . Should they promote them and use them in their messaging . Should they defend the president s tweets if there criticized by foreign nationals . Those individuals who seven admissions around the w