Joint Press Conference by Secretary Carter and Secretary Michael Fallon > U.S. Department o... 11 of 14 https://www.defense.gov/News/Transcripts/Transcript/Article/937142/joint-press-conference-... States is the world's most powerful military and one of the world's most powerful political states. Can you tonight look the people of Syria in the eye and say they will never be attacked by chemical weapons again? SEC. CARTER: Well, I don't think anybody can make that promise as long as the Assad regime isn't put on the path to ending the civil war there. And the key to that is Russia. They're the principal supporter of the Assad regime. And the -- that kind of behavior and all of the other ways that the Syrian regime has inflicted suffering upon its own people and prolonged the Syrian civil war, that is the dynamic that Russia is contributing to, rather than putting an end to. And that's why it's so important to give one more try, as President Obama said, to seeing if Russia will get on the right side of this and use its influence to stop this terrible suffering. I mean, meanwhile the United States and its coalition partners continue to prosecute the war on ISIL. And as Michael indicated and I indicated, we have real results there. But the conflict in Syria can't end until a political -- political disposition is made of the regime there. And Russia has the influence there and has in fact acted to try to increase its influence. It needs to use it to bringing an end to all this suffering. SEC. FALLON: BBC? Q: Thank you. If I could ask, first of all Secretary Carter, a question about -- I mean, the speech in Oxford, which I listened to, and your comments here about Russia, suggest that you basically don't see a way forward with Russia; that I think tomorrow -- (inaudible) -- Secretary Kerry are meant to be meeting. But you're saying -- I didn't get the sense that you believe any progress could be made on trying to get a ceasefire in Syria. 21.02.23, 14:13