TILLERSON: ‘Maybe Russia has the right approach to Syria and maybe the US has the wrong approach’

Rex Tillerson has given an audio interview to reporters after the lengthy meeting between Presidents Trump and Putin which both Tillerson and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov attended.

Tillerson spoke of how after getting to know one another, Trump and Putin became immersed in a thoroughly engaging conversation.

Tillerson gave the following description of why the meeting lasted so long,

“…There was so much to talk about, all these issues, just about everything got touched on…there was just such a level of engagement and exchange that neither one of them (Trump and Putin) wanted to stop”.

Tillerson continued saying that Melania Trump was sent in at one point to try and get the leaders to conclude their meeting,

“They sent in the first lady to see if she could get us out of there….we went another hour after she came to see us, so clearly she failed (to get the leaders to hurry up)”.

Tillerson stated that the bulk of the meeting covered Syria where he said that Russia and the US have the same objectives in Syria but with different views on how to achieve them. He said, that there is

“…more commonality than differences in Syria…maybe they’ve got the right approach and maybe we’ve got the wrong approach”.

This is something of a startling admission from a US Secretary of State. Tillerson who has met with Putin when he was a businessman seemed to think that the leaders had a very productive meeting in spite of difficult circumstances.

Now listen to Rex Tillerson describe the meeting in his own words.