"Secretary Tillerson and his team are looking at where we [United States, Russia] can move forward with respect to Syria and some other issues," the official said.
The official added that Tillerson "has great respect for Russia."
"There are areas that remain that are challenges and we have to get through those," the official noted.
The State Department has previously said that the US embassy in Astana will represent the United States during the next round of Syria talks in Kazakhstan scheduled for March 14-15.
"I assume that we will observe them [the Astana talks] like we have been doing," the official said.
Russia, Turkey and Iran acted as guarantors in establishing the latest Syrian ceasefire, which came into effect in late December 2016. The ceasefire was followed by peace talks in Kazakhstan's capital Astana, also backed by the three countries, during which Syria's warring sides agreed on a ceasefire monitoring mechanism.
The second round of Astana talks was held on February 15-16 and resulted in the agreement to establish a ceasefire monitoring group comprising Iran, Russia and Turkey, that would report to the United Nations.
