September 13, 2016; Washington, D.C. – In an interview with Morning Edition host Steve Inskeep, the U.S. Secretary of State defends the negotiated Syrian cease-fire deal as the best option, suggesting the alternative would be an increased death toll.
He says: "What's the alternative? The alternative is to allow us to go from 450,000 people who've been slaughtered to how many thousands more; that Aleppo gets completely overrun; that the Russians and Assad simply bomb indiscriminately for days to come and we sit there and do nothing? That's the alternative to trying to get this done, if America is not going to go in with their troops and America's made the decision we're not going in with our troops. And the President's made that decision."
The conversation airs in full on Wednesday, September 14, on Morning Edition. Local stations and broadcast times are available at npr.org/stations. An advanced transcript of the interview is available upon request, embargoed until 5 am tomorrow.
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