Secretary of State John Kerry met with about 10 senior department officials who disagree with the Obama administration’s plan in Syria, but a spokesman for the department said there would be no readout of Kerry’s talk with the dissenters.
A total of 51 diplomats have signed onto a “dissent channel” cable that was made public last week, and which says U.S. policy in Syria is not working. It calls for sustained airstrikes against the Syrian government, which State has openly admitted continues to ignore a fragile cease-fire there.
State Department spokesman John Kirby said Kerry met with 10 of the signatories Tuesday morning, for about 30 minutes. But he declined to say anything about what the group discussed, other than to say it was about the Syria memo.
“Because the dissent channel memo and the contents of it are meant to be privately conveyed, so too, I’m afraid, are going to have to be the discussions around it,” Kirby said. “I’m not going to be able to characterize the content of the secretary’s conversation with them, because we want to respect the confidentiality of the process.”
Kirby did offer that it was a “good discussion,” and that Kerry respects both the views of the dissenting officials, and their ability to register their opposition.
“He thanked them for expressing their views and for using the dissent channel, and he reaffirmed his strong belief in the value of the dissent channel,” Kirby said.
Kirby declined to say whether Kerry offered to take into account their views as the government continues to find a way to bring peace to the civil war-torn country.
The memo is a harsh assessment of the Obama administration’s effort in Syria. Among other things, it warns that U.S. policy is being “overwhelmed” by violence that originates with Syrian President Bashar Assad. The memo calls for the use of “air weapons” that would “drive a more focused and hard-nosed U.S.-led diplomatic process.”
While State said it wouldn’t be sharing how Kerry might or might not use the advice in the memo, State has also said it wouldn’t retaliate against any of the officials who wrote it.
