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Following the ceasefire announcement on Thursday, there were Republicans on Capitol Hill who were cautiously optimistic.

\"The fact that the slaughter has stopped is good news,\" said Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C. \"But I promise you this: five days from now, I will feel just as committed to making sure Turkey is out of Syria as I am today. I will feel just as committed to making sure we don't abandon the Kurds as I am today. And I'm going to give it a chance -- give a ceasefire a chance. Whether it results in peace, I don't know.\"

Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., had a different reaction.

\"The administration and the president's decision has undermined every single one of\" America's interests in Syria \"and I think has done so in ways that we're going to regret for a long time,\" Rubio said on Thursday.

Pompeo responded to Rubio's comments on Sunday, saying that the Trump administration was still \"fully\" committed to preventing the reemergence of the Islamic State, restraining Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s power and eliminating Iranian influence in Syria.

\"Security, stability in the Middle East has increased because of the work we've done,\" he said. \"I'm very confident that this administration's efforts to crush ISIS will continue.\"

\"I can assure you that the efforts to push back against Iran are real and continuous,\" Secretary of State Mike Pompeo tells @GStephanopoulos when pressed about Republican criticism of the Trump administration's Syria policy https://t.co/GlcWTIu29g pic.twitter.com/eCkAYM65A0

— ABC News Politics (@ABCPolitics) October 20, 2019

Stephanopoulos also asked Pompeo about concerns raised about potential ethnic cleansing by Turkey.

\"And Lindsey Graham raises the other concern as the Kurds are withdrawing from that border with Turkey, that it would lead to a military occupation that displaces hundreds of thousands,\" Stephanopoulos said. \"He says that's not a safe zone, it's ethnic cleansing. Can you assure the Kurdish people and the president's allies in Congress that you will not be party to ethnic cleansing?\"

Pompeo pointed to the joint statement that was released declaring the ceasefire.

.@GStephanopoulos: \"Can you assure the Kurdish people and the president's allies in Congress that you will not be party to ethnic cleansing?\"

Mike Pompeo points to joint statement that in Turkish-controlled space there \"wouldn't be attacks on minorities\" https://t.co/NfqydRAx4C pic.twitter.com/wkVYtHJ8fl

— ABC News Politics (@ABCPolitics) October 20, 2019

\"No fewer than three of the paragraphs were aimed squarely at ensuring that in this space, this Turkish-controlled space, between Tal Abyad and Ras al-Ayn, in that Turkish-controlled space that there wouldn't be attacks on minorities,\" he said.

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