US has prioritizes Ukraine, Syria for next 2 months

WASHINGTON

The U.S. will continue to prioritize crises in Ukraine and Syria as major foreign policy agenda issues for the next two months until the new president takes office, the State Department said Thursday.

"I would say the conflict in Syria certainly is going to continue to dominate the secretary's [John Kerry] time for the next two months," agency spokesman John Kirby said during a press briefing.

"And then obviously the situation in Ukraine and Europe will continue to be, I think dominate, on his agenda."

Last Wednesday, Putin withdrew Russia from the International Criminal Court (ICC) after the court referred to Russia’s annexation of Crimea in eastern Ukraine in 2014 as an armed conflict. The U.S. sanctioned Russia for the annexation.

During his campaign, Donald Trump questioned the reason for NATO, openly said he admired Russian President Vladimir Putin and allegedly accepted the annexation of Crimea. After his victory, Putin said Moscow was ready to restore relations with the U.S.

Kirby’s comments were in response to a question about whether the State Department was concerned about the Trump’s telephone conversations with several foreign leaders on foreign issues since he was elected president.

Kirby declined to comment but said it was up to the Trump transition team to prioritize foreign policy issues and added that the Obama administration’s priorities would continue to be the same for the next two months.

Trump will take the oath of office Jan. 20 as the 45th President of the United States.

Syria will also remain another top priority for the Obama administration, according to Kirby. The country has been locked in a vicious civil war since early 2011, when the Assad regime cracked down on pro-democracy protests with unexpected ferocity and mounted war crimes against his own people.

Since then, hundreds of thousands of people have been killed -- and more than 10 million displaced -- across the war-battered country, according to UN figures.