Secretary of State John Kerry made a rare admission that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has gained ground.

Secretary of State John Kerry made a rare admission that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has gained ground.

"It's fair to say that Assad has improved his position a little bit, yes,” Kerry said in an exclusive interview with CNN's "The Lead with Jake Tapper. “But he's still not winning. This is a stalemate.”

But Kerry denied that Obama administration’s policy is failing.
"I don't want to make any excuse whatsoever. We want this to move faster. We want it to do better," said Kerry. "But the point I'm making is that diplomacy is tough, slogging, slow work and hard work. But we're beginning to see the shaping of how you might potentially get somewhere.”

“And we are always in the process of reevaluating whether there's more we can do, should do. We'll work with Congress. We're working internally to figure out if we should if there's a way to get more response from the Russians, more response from Assad," he added.

Kerry argued last year that more needs to be done to topple Assad, including arming the foriegn-backed militants.

"The President has said the same thing, I mean this is not a divergence," Kerry said.
This week, Kerry reportedly told some members of Congress behind closed doors that he has grave concerns about President Barack Obama's Syria policy.