US Sec State Tillerson in Russia: Presser Transcript

Press Conference Tillerson v Lavrov - 
Topics: Syria, Election Hacking, Sanctions, ISIS, Investigations & Proof

I listened/watched this news conference; this transcript seems accurate. I excerpted highlighting some significant points and adding links to sources of the facts. My conclusion: Tillerson behaved like a courteous guest even tho Mr Lavrov was clearly aggressive in his comments as he pointed out many past events when NATO and the 'west' were wrong as they interfered in the governments of nations. Examples: Serbia, Iraq, Libya, Egypt, Sudan now Syria. - A.
***
4-12-17 Transcript from CNN: 
​THIRTY MINUTE NEWS CONFERENCE IN MOSCOW US SEC STATE REX TILLERSON VS SERGEY LAVROV, RUSSIAN FOREIGN MINISTER
 
OPENING STATEMENT BY LAVROV  -- To this question, which should have been about the overall settlement of Syria. So the media hysteria was unleashed as a result of this incident. We have to make sure that we are impartial now in investigating this whole business by sending international expert groups to the site and to that particular place where the chemicals were used and, of course, the airfield which was used for sending out aircraft with chemical substances. We have seen no confirmation that that was the case, all the more so because the TV images showed that there were people on the airfield immediately after the strike, and there were absolutely no evidence which would allow us to talk about the use of some kind of poisonous substances. I would like to underline that we are 100 percent sure that (inaudible) the U.N. as well as (inaudible) tried to avoid this investigation. This will signify their reluctance to find out the truth. But we will insist that the truth should be found.

 QUESTION: Secretary Tillerson, Regarding your meeting with Pres Putin - How will you compel Assad to participate in a political transition that leads to his own ouster? Are war crimes charges on the table? And how long will the United States wait for Russia to come around?
 
And to  Lavrov, Russia & US governments seem to be miles apart on the Syria issue, on Ukraine and other issues. Did you feel that you cleared up any of those issues you mentioned earlier today, since you've had those discussions with Secretary Tillerson?
 
TILLERSON: "There is a low level of trust between our two countries.  The world's two foremost nuclear powers cannot have this kind of relationship. ... We did discuss at length the future role for Assad, whether it be in a future political process or not. Clearly, our view is that the reign of the Assad family is coming to an end. And they have again brought this on themselves with their conduct of the war in these past few years.
 
We discussed our view that Russia, as their closest ally in the conflict, perhaps has the best means of helping Assad recognize this reality. We do think it's important that Assad's departure is done in an orderly way -- an orderly way -- so that certain interests and constituencies that he represents feel they have been represented at the negotiating table for a political solution. How that occurs, we leave that to the process going forward. We do not think one has to occur before the other can begin. And it will take a pace of its own. But the final outcome in our view does not provide for a role for the Assad -- for Assad or for the Assad family in the future governance of Syria. We do not think the international community will accept that. We do not think the world will accept that.  We discussed the issue that as time goes by, and more and more evidence continues to be gathered, it is possible that the threshold necessary to charge individuals, including Bashar al-Assad, may be achieved. As you know, this is a very high legal hurdle in order to bring such charges against an individual. So I would not suggest to you that all of that evidence is in place, but I think the longer time goes by, it's possible that the case will be made. And there are certain individuals who are working to make that case.
 
LAVROV: I, for one, would like to say that I do not think that Russia and the U.S. have so great a distance that it cannot be bridged on many issues of the international agenda, both with regard to Syria and Ukraine. It's not impossible.
 
In our introductory remarks with Rex Tillerson, we mentioned the agreement that related not just to preserve, but also to intensifying the communication channels with regard to Syria and Ukraine. As for Syria and Bashar al-Assad, we have had sort of a historical background. Rex says that he's a new (ph) guy, and (inaudible) looking into history (inaudible) to deal with the matters of today.  But the thing is, the world is built in such a fashion that if we do not take lessons from the past, we will hardly (ph) be able to achieve success in the present.

Lavrov itemized PAST WESTERN ERRORS:
And I recall certain situations when groups of countries, primarily Western countries, NATO countries, were sort of fixated:

• - on eliminating this or that dictator or totalitarian leader.
• - When it was a question of ousting Slobodan Milosevic ** [President of Serbia], NATO and furled a huge campaign. It was a very blatant violation of international law. They even bombed the place, which is certainly a war crime whichever way you interpret the Geneva convention.
  • - And they bombed the headquarters.
  • - And there were also attacks on trains,
  • - the Chinese embassy,
  • - bridges, and so on and so forth.
  • - This lasted some two months. And after all this, which was very near to weapons of dual purpose, then they ousted Milosevic.
• - Then there was a question of Saddam Hussein in Iraq. We know after the invasion, we know what it was based on. Tony Blair afterwards repented publicly that all this was a fake; and you all know about that no worse than we do.
• - Then there was Gadhafi in Libya [2]. It was declared that this dictator had no place in his own country and this was against democracy. We know what happened in Libya. The Libyan government is now under a huge question mark. President Putin did speak about it yesterday with the Italian president. And we are both trying to stop the situation of the country slipping into full illegal immigration, gun running, and so on.
• - Sudan. President Bashir was declared to be under prosecution by the International Court of Justice, and President Obama [1] decided that in order to settle this problem, you had to divide the country up into two. And the southern part very actively asked for our assistance in dealing with President Bashir that the Americans (inaudible) should be the head of both states. He kept his word. He divided the country into two parts, according to the American project of the administration of President Obama, with the effect that sanctions were introduced against their own child (ph), on South Sudan.

 
Laundry list of failed efforts  re nation rebuilding:
This insistence on removing or ousting a dictator or totalitarian leader, we have already been through it; we know only too well what happens when you do that. I don't remember any case of a dictator being removed smoothly without violence. So, in Syria -- and I have traced this many times -- we are not staking everything on a personality, on President Assad, as is being done in Libya [like Gaddafi in Libya] [like Mubarak in Egypt] [like Saddam in Iraq] at the moment. We are simply insisting that everybody sits around a table and talks about it and comes to agreement. As has been enshrined in the Security Council Resolution, we want to instill dialogue with all the players concerned. And removing or ousting a particular personality from this scene is not on our agenda. We are talking about the whole of the Syrian government; we want it to be: 

• the Syrians themselves, without any kind of exclusion, to be represented in this process.
• democratic
• secular [not Islamic fundamentalist with Sharia law]
• And we want to see all the ethnic confessional groups in the country to feel protected, justly represented in all the branches of government and power.
• And obviously for that you need a new constitution.
• We think that then the question of the fate of individuals could be dealt with and without any kind of tragic consequences for the state as a whole.

 
QUESTION: Tillerson, did you discuss today with President Putin or Foreign Minister Lavrov sanctions or other concessions that the United States might make in exchange for a change in behavior from the Russian government?
And also, speaking about what you just answered previously, did you present to President Putin or the foreign minister specific evidence that the Russian government interfered in the U.S. election?
 
Lavrov, if an independent investigation finds the Assad government attacked his own people with chemical weapons, what will Russia do? President Putin says there's an effort to blame Assad and plant evidence. Did you present that evidence to Secretary Tillerson today? And would Russia refuse to consider to agree to any circumstance that results in the ousting of Bashar al-Assad?
 
SANCTIONS?
TILLERSON: We discussed no change in the status of sanctions that have been in place with Russia as a result of certain actions taken in Ukraine, as you know. I think as to the question of the interference with the election, that is fairly well established in the United States. And I think that has been spoken to on the Hill as well, with the Congress. And it a serious issue. It's one that we know is serious enough to attract additional sanctions. And so we are mindful of the seriousness of that particular interference in our elections. And I'm sure that Russia is mindful of it as well.
 
SYRIA INVESTIGATION QUESTION HYPOTHETICAL:
LAVROV: And what will happen if the investigation will demonstrate the involvement of the Syrian leadership in the chemical attacks, I believe that question is hypothetical. We don't want to try and guess the (inaudible) because there has been a lot of historical looking at the tea leaves and coming to the conclusion that bombing should take place. And after the U.S. missile strike, there was a lot of talk of that. We do not wish to speculate about these very serious matters of the use of chemical weapons, the use of -- or the attempts to inculcate people or to orchestrate things. We want to establish the truth, the full truth in line with the principles of U.S. and Russian laws, the laws of any normal, civilized country. The presumption of innocence must reign supreme. And I have just told you that our instructions to The Hague, to the OPCW in The Hague about the investigation, if this is -- if people put the brakes (ph) on, we shall protest.
 
RUSSIA INTERFERRED IN US ELECTION?
As far as the argument that the U.S. has incontrovertible evidence of the fact that we intervened in the U.S, presidential campaign, I have to say, once again, that we have not seen any facts -- even hints at facts. We have not seen any evidence. No one has shown to us any evidence, even though we have requested on many occasions that this evidence be produced to us to support the accusations we hear.
 
We do understand that there are many people who want to undermine our relations to pursue their internal or external political interests, but these are just games with evil ends. We want to hear complete proof and then we'll respond accordingly.
 
 FINAL QUESTION Margaret Brennan with CBS News:   Mr. Secretary, before these meetings you said you believed Russia was either incompetent or complicit [TILLERSON DIDN'T ANSWER THAT QUESTION] in these chemical weapons attacks. After your extensive meeting with both Vladimir Putin and Sergey Lavrov, do you know which one that is and what concrete thing can be done to rebuild that lack of     trust?  

TO LAVROV Q: President Trump has called Bashar al- Assad an animal. This is the leader your government continues to back. Can you tell us how long Russia will be willing to risk the lives of its soldiers and spend its money to protect him? 
          
USA NO EVIDENCE RUSSIA INVOLVED IN SYRIAN CHEMICAL ATTACK:
TILLERSON: With respect to Russia's complicity or knowledge of chemical weapon attacks, we have no firm information to indicate there was any involvement by Russian -- Russian forces into this attack. What we do know, and we have very firm and high confidence in our conclusions, that the attack was planned and carried out by the regime forces at the direction of Bashar al-Assad.
 
REGARDING HACKING AND SYRIA ATTACKING INNOCENTS, RUSSIA HAS A PORT AT TARTUS AND IS AN INVITED PROTECTOR OF SYRIA
 
LAVROV: I can only say once again, that just as in the case for the so-called Russian hackers and the chemical incidents in Syria, we would very much like to get some increased evidence, not just words. So far we have not seen any facts. Once again, I'd just like to say that in Syria we are working at the request of the legitimate government of a member country of the United Nations, and we are against any kind of sanctions initiated by the Security Council of the United Nations.
 
WHAT IS THE GOAL OF RUSSIA?
LAVROV: And we are combating terrorism. We want to make sure that ISIL and the Nusra forces do not get hold of Damascus. And the coalition which President Obama cobbled together did not actually deal with the mission, and that was before the appearance of the Russian Air Force in the country.

USA SPARES AL-NUSRA? [Islamic 'Rebels' supported by Obama in Syria]
The American coalition struck only certain positions of ISIL, but Jabhat al-Nusra was always spared. And we have a very persistent suspicion that Nusra is still being sparred so as to trigger plan B and to try and overturn the regime of Assad.
 
I have already mentioned that we've already noticed that in Iraq and Libya. This is due to the prevalence of people who simply want to do that. And as far as crimes committed in Syria, certainly we will be eager to sort that out. And I think that there have to be priorities. And the priorities which you've heard from Washington to the effect that the destruction of ISIL is priority number one and John Kerry and Spicer (ph) have already said that it is possible to get rid of ISIL without regime change. And Kerry used to say that it is much more important to deal with ISIL than Assad's regime.
 
So we think in very like manner here. The common threat is absolutely obvious. If it is possible to overcome ISIL without reversing the regime, then having reversed or upturned the regime, it may well be that we will lose the fight against ISIL. So I think what we need to do is to use common sense and fewer emotions."

** ​Milosevic exonerated, as the NATO war machine moves on
Aug 2, 2016 - The ICTY's exoneration of the late Slobodan Milosevic, the former President of Yugoslavia, for war crimes committed in the Bosnia war
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Full transcript here: http://www.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/1704/12/cnr.05.html