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Unless there is meaningful change in Syria and an end to the crackdown, President Assad and those around him will find themselves isolated internationally and discredited within Syria.

The presence of jihadis in Syria should be no surprise.

If Syria wants to be part of the international community, there are some conditions that they have to meet. And the first one is to stop embracing the terrorism.

I know something quite sure. We'll never have peace with this Syrian regime. They'll never give us relief, and we'll never forget that.

There is little doubt that an unstable Syria will destabilize the whole Middle East.

I think Syria is in a particularly sensitive geopolitical position in terms of the politics of the Middle East.

We've got a very difficult situation created by this embrace of the so-called Arab Spring. And that's not getting better. It's getting worse. The carnage for the people of Syria is horrific, and it's quite frankly too little, too late to reverse a lot of that.

Where there is terrorist activity - Syria or Iraq - we will temporarily suspend immigration until we can establish a vetting system in which we can identify who people are who are coming in.

Those who back the Syrian regime from now on will find themselves in an even more isolated and indefensible minority.

I want to arrive at the possibility of peace with the Syrians, and when I believe that the conditions are right, I will not miss the opportunity.