Washington, DC, May 21, 2017 – In an interview with Chris Wallace of Fox News Sunday covering a wide range of topics and issues regarding the president’s trip to overseas, Secretary of State Rex W. Tillerson who is accompanying the president on this trip responded to a question regarding the president’s speech covering social issues such as human rights and women’s rights said: the issues of human rights and women’s rights are addressed ” to improve the conditions in the region, and today, conditions in the region are under a lot of stress because of the threat of terrorism, the threat that Iran poses to instability in the region. And these subjects are being discussed as well and there are efforts underway to, I think, improve the rights of women, the participation of women in society throughout the region, but the primary reason we’re here today is to confront this threat of terrorism. If we do not defeat Daesh, if we do not defeat these forces of evil, there will be no conditions under which we can even hope to improve human rights for all of the people in the region.”
On Iran, Fox New Sunday’s Chris Wallace asked the secretary that would ” any of the agreements that are being made this weekend with Sunni, Arab, and Muslim nations, help the United States in the effort to contain Iran and its regional expansion?”
Secretary of States Rex Tillerson said: “Significant new arms sales packages were announced yesterday with the kingdom, but there are also sales going on to other important countries in the region. This strengthens the overall security posture of the Gulf and the Arab nations in particular, and I think makes it clear to Iran that we, the United States, will stand with our partners here in the region to counter Iran’s hegemony. Any aspirations Iran has for putting pressure on these countries will be met by a strong and unified front.”

Source: Extracted from the State dept. transcript