Remarks as Prepared by White House Coordinator for the Middle East, North Africa, and the Gulf Region Philip Gordon at the Ha'aretz Israel Conference for Peace

We are also working to reduce threats to Israel, and to ourselves, from Syria. Last month, under U.S. leadership, the international community successfully removed the last of Bashar al-Assad’s declared chemical weapons from Syria. That reduces the ability of either a brutal dictator or Islamist extremists to use weapons of mass destruction to threaten not just the Syrian people but Syria’s neighbors. At the time of the agreement, many were skeptical it could be done. But it was. A year ago Assad not only had one of the world’s largest stockpiles of chemical weapons—he was using them to kill large numbers of Syrians. Today, the weapons and production capabilities we and our Israeli colleagues worried so much about are gone. This is a singular achievement, and removes at least one challenge that at the time seemed impossible to meet.

The Syrian conflict remains an immense security risk and a tragedy on an enormous scale. Doing all we can to resolve it remains a priority. We continue to increase our efforts to support the moderate opposition and to press for a political solution that resolves a conflict that is feeding a humanitarian crisis and regional instability. The proposal for a $5 billion Counterterrorism Partnership Fund announced by President Obama at West Point last month will help stabilize Syria’s neighbors and increase their capacity to cope with the crisis. And it will also boost the moderate opposition’s ability to strengthen itself vis a vis the regime and the extremists alike.