US Secretary of State John Kerry says his counterparts in other nations know President Barack Obama didn’t order all the snooping that the National Security Agency conducted abroad.

While travelling in the United Arab Emirates, Kerry told the BBC his foreign counterparts have been understanding about the recent revelations of widespread NSA surveillance.

He says they know the Obama administration is trying to find a way forward that can fight terrorism in a way that respects privacy.

Kerry says Obama didn’t personally order all the various types of snooping that have been revealed by former NSA systems analyst Edward Snowden, and that the scope of the NSA work evolved over a long period of time.

Earlier, Kerry said in Warsaw that Europeans and others had “legitimate” questions about the surveillance.