Secretary of State Rex Tillerson told the UN Secretary General that the fate of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad is in Russia’s hands and that the Trump administration’s priority in the war-torn country is the defeat of the Islamic State, according to a report on Monday.

Tillerson made the comments to Secretary-General Antonio Guterres during a private meeting last week at the State Department, Foreign Policy reported, citing three diplomatic sources.

But a State Department official said the US is still “committed to the Geneva process,” a 2012 agreement between Russia, the US and other Western powers to establish a transitional government in Syria.

The official , according to Foreign Policy, said the Trump administration supports a “credible political process that can resolve the question of Syria’s future.

Ultimately, this process, in our view, will lead to a resolution of Assad’s status.”

“The Syrian people should determine their country’s political future through a political process,” the official added.

Tillerson’s comments to Guterres seem to be at odds with remarks he made in April after Assad launched a chemical weapons attack on the rebel-held town of Khan Sheikhoun that “there would be no role for him to govern the Syrian people .”

The US struck a Syrian airbase with 59 Tomahawk cruise missiles in retaliation for the gas attack.

The secretary of state’s comments come as President Trump is expected to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin at the G-20 Summit in Germany later this week.

Russia’s backing of Syria in its six-year-old civil war is expected to be among the topics the two leaders will discuss, along with the Kremlin’s interference in Ukraine.

The White House wouldn’t say whether the president would raise the issue of Russia’s meddling in the 2016 election.