Kerry Meets with State Department Dissenters Urging Action on Syria

The meeting, held in Mr. Kerry’s office, lasted for about half an hour, during which Mr. Kerry outlined his thoughts and summarized his work on Syria, engaging in a back-and-forth with the authors, State Department spokesman John Kirby said.

He said Mr. Kerry took the participants’ views seriously, although the cable isn’t expected to prompt any major shift in the administration’s Syria policy.

There were approximately 10 officials in the meeting with Mr. Kerry, but they weren’t identified and couldn’t be reached for comment, the Wall Street Journal reported.

“The secretary was largely in listening mode. The purpose was to hear them out,” Mr. Kirby said.

The US continues to believe “there’s no military solution to the conflict in Syria,” Kirby said Tuesday, but added that the US has been and will continue to look at other policy options.

“The secretary is very committed to trying to work on…getting a transitional governing process in place, getting the political talks back on track, getting the cessation of hostilities in force nationwide in an enduring way and getting humanitarian assistance to the still millions of Syrians in need,” Kirby said.

The Wall Street Journal last week reported on the contents of the memo signed by 51 US diplomats who work or have worked on Syria policy in various capacities and which was sent through the State Department’s internal dissent channel. The memo called for the US to take a more aggressive approach in its Syria policy, including by using military strikes to weaken Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s government.

The US State Department usually receives four or five cables through the dissent channel per year. The cable transmitted last week was notable because of the number of diplomats involved and the fact that it was leaked to the media.