Kerry begins second leg of overseas trip

>> literally just got back from flying in. are your arms tired? traveling with second kerry . she comes in, and you are going to be going back out with secretary kerry , but this is his first big trip. you were there at the start, and let's get right to the news. he met with his russian counterpart, and some potentially big news coming having to do with syria.

>> well, first of all, he met with lavrov for quite a long time. we're told they discussed all their issues, which are syria, principalically, and also iran because there are talks today in kazakhstan with the western powers and iran for the first time in six months.

>> although nobody expects much out of it until after the iranian elections, but there seems to be more wiggle room. the red line pushed back a little farther, according to the very technical details in that u.n. weapons inspectors report last week.

>> what kerry hinted at in our meetings in london in our news conference was that there could be a change of policy afoot. that he is not going to leave the syrian opposition --

>> the change of policy from the united states .

>> from the u.s. now, there is no agreement with russia. russia is rearming assad, propping up the regime, and that was the contentious part of today's meeting. but what kerry seemed to be hinting at is that under pressure from the brits and certainly from the syrian opposition which initially said that they would not meet in rome with him in a couple of days, he called them and persuaded them saying show up, we've got something for you. this meeting will be worth your while. what he said to us is this is a right moment. it is a new secretary of state. it is a president on a second term. wait and see what happens. now --

>> you were staying that hillary clinton , leon panetta both wanted to arm the syrian rebel wrshz.

>> arm some of them.

>> the president vetoed it. you think he is telegraphing something.

>> i think he thinks he is telegraphing something. i think he may think he has more running room than he has. we've seen that the white house really controls foreign policy more than the state department . hillary clinton didn't challenge that. she proposed and then the fact that she was against the policy didn't come out until leon panetta hearing at the end after she had left office. she kept her disagreements very, very private. this question is whether john kerry will have the flexibility and the authority to recommend changes.

>> you said russian -- what specifically?

>> kerry promised he would bring this up, and baskly they want to lift the ban. vladimir putin has put a ban on adoptions by american families. they do have their complaints. there have been some terrible cases, most recently one in texas, where adopted russian children have been either abused or this last case a child died. kerry 's argument to lavrov today is there are thousands of orphans. they need loving parents. we have americansotology take them in. yes, we will deal with the problems that have existed, but those are small, tragic but small, compared to the thousands of families that could be united.