WASHINGTON, August 2. /TASS/. The US administration will take measures to prevent the new round of sanctions against Russia, drafted by the US congress, from ruining attempts to restore ties with Moscow, US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said on Tuesday.
"The action by the Congress to put these sanctions in place, and the way they did, neither the president nor I are very happy about that," Tillerson told reporters.
"We were clear that we didn't think it was going to be helpful to our efforts, but that's the decision they made. They made it in a very overwhelming way," he went on. "I think the president accepts that, all indications are he will sign that bill and then we'll just work with it."
"You know, that's kind of my view is, we'll work with it, we got it, we can't let it take us off track of trying to restore the relationship," the US top diplomat said.
Last week, the US Congress passed a bill to toughen the unilateral US sanctions against Russia, Iran and North Korea. The White House said US President Donald Trump had familiarized himself with the final version of a bill and planned to sign it into law.