Senate Foreign Relations Chairman John Kerry (D-Mass.) met Saturday with Syrian President Bashar Assad, who leads a nation officially on the U.S. list of states that sponsor terror.
“Unlike the Bush administration that believed you could simply tell people what to do and walk away and wait for them to do it, we believe we have to engage in a discussion,” Kerry said, according to the Jerusalem Post.
“And so we are going to renew diplomacy but without any illusions, without any naivete, without any misplaced belief that just by talking, things will automatically happen,” Kerry added.
On the trip, Kerry was joined by Sen. BenCardin (D-Md.) and House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Howard Berman (D-Calif.).