As she sends “support message” to Syria’s opposition parties, US Secretary of State says it is not too late for President Bashar al-Assad to plan for transition in the crisis-hit country.

As she sends “support message” to Syria’s opposition parties, US Secretary of State says it is not too late for President Bashar al-Assad to plan for transition in the crisis-hit country.

After failing to win a UN Security Council resolution on Syria after Russia and China imposed their vetoes, Clinton said that the United States was “working outside the council to send "a clear message of support for the opposition".

"We do believe that it is not too late for the Assad regime to commence with planning for a transition to find a way that ends the violence and begin the serious discussions that have not occurred to date," she told reporters.

The Secretary of State added that the opposition also "has to be prepared. They have to start working on interim government entities."

"They have to set up humanitarian response efforts that we can also support. They've got to safeguard the chemical and biological weapons that we know the Syrian regime has, and so there's a lot to be done."