When reading headlines about things the political class are quietly "revealing", remember that someone somewhere decided to share this information as part of a PR strategy. A small team of people strategized about something and decided having the press run this story was a good idea and they got approval from someone in or near the cabinet (in this case). They decided what the political figure would "say" and/or created a highly edited version from that figure (or both). They then offered the story to a friendly access "journalist" from a major paper so they could do the quid pro quo of lying for the interests of power in order to gain or maintain clout.

The general public is supposed to understand this as a look "behind the veil". That this is a particularly honest revelation of true feelings that will translate into something real and that good things are being attempted even if what you actually see happen is a genocidal bombing campaign fully funded and supplied by the United States.