WASHINGTON – President Trump’s ongoing outreach to Kremlin officials will not prevent him from holding Russia accountable for its “disruptive behavior” in the Middle East and elsewhere, White House national security adviser H.R. McMaster said Friday.

“What the president has made clear is that he will confront Russia’s disruptive behavior, such as the support for the murderous Assad regime in Syria … its enabling of Iran, and it’s very destructive policy and strategy that it’s executing across the Middle East,” McMaster explained.

But Trump’s top national security aide said the president and his cabinet will be “looking for areas of cooperation” with Moscow at the same time.

McMaster said a number of issues in international security would be easier to address “if Russia would come to the conclusion that it could best advance its interests from cooperating with the United States and others to resolve those conflicts rather than perpetuate them.”

McMaster’s reassurance that Trump remains committed to holding Russia accountable comes days after he and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov met at the White House for a brief discussion about U.S.-Russia relations and Syria’s civil war.

“We want to see the killing, the horrible killing, stopped in Syria as soon as possible and everyone is working toward that end,” Trump said after the meeting.

Lavrov and Trump did not agree to any “specific approaches” to Syria during their meeting on Wednesday, McMaster said.