White House Press Secretary Jay Carney sidestepped a question pertaining to whether the U.S. was in the "driver's seat" in the Syrian negotiations Thursday in the White House press conference.
Carney tried to emphasize that there are many countries involved, but the U.S. and Russia are "key players":
Q: Here you go -- the first part being, on Syria, who's in the driver's seat now, diplomatically, Russia or the United States?
MR. CARNEY: We're working directly with Russia. John Kerry is with his Russian counterpart. We're working in New York with all members of the United Nations Security Council, including the other four permanent members, one of which is Russia. And because Assad and the Syria regime has been a patron of Russia, protected by Russia, obviously Russia plays a huge role in bringing about this change in Syria's handling of its chemical weapons and its -- you know, even its admittance that it has chemical weapons, and that means -- you know, that is very significant.
Moving this forward requires the joint effort of the United States and Russia and the consensus effort of nations on the United Nations Security Council. So this is a -- you know, it's not -- it's not one nation; it's many. But there's no question that the United States and Russia are, you know, key players.