Kerry pushes for Assad negotiations

The United States will “have to negotiate in the end” with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, Secretary of State John Kerry has said.

Speaking on the fourth anniversary of the civil war, Mr Kerry said the conflict was “one of the worst tragedies any of us have seen”.

He said the US was pushing President Assad to begin negotiations again after two previous rounds of talks collapsed.

More than 215,000 people are estimated to have been killed in the conflict.

The US was working hard to “re-ignite” efforts to find a political solution to end the war, Mr Kerry said in an interview in the Egyptian resort of Sharm el-Sheikh.

Interviewed by CBS News, he said the US was working with the moderate opposition in Syria as well as pursuing a diplomatic track.

“We have had conversations with a number of different critical players in this tragedy,” he added.

The White House has previously insisted that Mr Assad stand down as part of a political settlement, but it is unclear from Mr Kerry’s comments whether the US position has changed.

Analysis: Jonathan Marcus, BBC diplomatic correspondent

Mr Kerry’s comments are the clearest indication yet that Washington is coming to terms with the reality that its Syria policy is going nowhere.

Frequent declarations that President Assad is “part of the problem and needs to go” are all very well, but there is simply no sign of him being toppled.

Indeed the rise of a new actor in Syria – the Islamic State organisation – leads many experts to believe that if Mr Assad were to be swept away, then the main beneficiary would be the jihadists of IS. Syria might descend into even greater chaos and bloodshed, if that is imaginable.

Mr Kerry’s reference to the Geneva I process of 2012 is instructive. This was seen by many as ruling out any future role for Mr Assad but equally – at the urging of his Russian allies – it did not explicitly call for him to leave Syrian politics. That was to be decided by the Syrian people.

Mr Kerry has been a leading player in international efforts to kick-start peace talks, bringing representatives from the Assad regime and the Syrian opposition together in Geneva for the first time early last year – but the negotiations collapsed after two rounds.

“To get the Assad regime to negotiate, we’re going to have to make it clear to him that there is a determination by everybody to seek that political outcome and change his calculation about negotiating,” Mr Kerry said.

“That’s under way right now. And I am convinced that, with the efforts of our allies and others, there will be increased pressure on Assad.”

The civil war in Syria, which is now entering its fifth year, began after President Assad’s forces launched a deadly crackdown on a peaceful uprising against four decades of his family’s rule.

The country has since been carved up by government forces, the Islamic State jihadist group, Kurdish fighters and the remaining rebel groups.

BBC