The United States will have to negotiate with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to end the crisis now entering its fifth year, Secretary of State John Kerry conceded in an interview that aired Sunday.
The United States will have to negotiate with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to end the crisis now entering its fifth year, Secretary of State John Kerry conceded in an interview that aired Sunday.
"Well, we have to negotiate in the end. We've always been willing to negotiate in the context of the Geneva I process," Kerry said in an interview with CBS television carried out Saturday.
He stressed Washington was working hard to "re-ignite" efforts to find a political solution to end the war.
"Assad didn't want to negotiate," Kerry said however.
"So if he's ready to have a serious negotiation about the implementation of Geneva I, of course, if people are prepared to do that. And what we're pushing for is to get him to come and do that," he replied when asked if he would negotiate with Assad.
"This is one of the worst tragedies any of us have seen on the face of the planet," Kerry said, in an interview recorded in the Egyptian resort of Sharm el-Sheikh.
He insisted that despite the challenge of the US-led fight against the Takfiri group ISIL, Washington was still focused on ending the Syrian crisis.
"We are increasing our efforts in a very significant way, working with the moderate opposition, but doing much more than that also," Kerry said.
"We're also pursuing a diplomatic track. We have had conversations with a number of different critical players in this tragedy," he said.
Russia, which has close links to Assad, helped initiate the Geneva II talks in 2013, which were aimed at bringing about a political transition based on earlier Geneva I negotiations.
Kerry met in Geneva at the beginning of March with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov to discuss ways of bringing all sides back to the negotiating table.
"We are working very hard with other interested parties to see if we can reignite a diplomatic outcome," Kerry said.
US President Barack Obama "is extremely seized of the issue and focused on it with the intent to see what we can do to change the dynamic."
