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We have to negotiate with Syria's Assad: Kerry

Xinhua, March 16, 2015 Adjust font size:

The United States may have to negotiate with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to end the armed conflict in the Arab country politically, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said on Sunday.

"We have to negotiate in the end ... everybody agrees there is no military solution, there is only a political solution," Kerry said in an interview with CBS News channel.

Kerry's comments came as the armed conflict in Syria enters the fifth year, after leaving more than 200,000 Syrians killed and millions more displaced since the violence started in 2011.

The U.S. official said his country is working hard with other interested parties to see if it is possible to reignite a diplomatic outcome.

"To get the Assad regime to negotiate, we are 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, that is underway right now," he added.

"And I am convinced that, with the efforts of our allies and others, there will be increased pressure on Assad," Kerry noted.

The West and Gulf Arab states want a political transition in Syria to remove Assad from power. However, with strong allies such as Iran and Russia backing him, Assad has been successfully maneuvering his internal and external opponents for the past four years.

The Syrian crisis started as peaceful protests in March 2011 against decades' rule of the Assad family in the country, which soon deteriorated into a full-fledged civil war.

A latest round of peace talks between the Syrian government and the rebels was convened by Russia in January, but made little progress.

Years of extreme violence has also turned into a hotbed for extremists, like the latest Islamic State (IS) group which has controlled large swathes of land in Syria and Iraq.

To battle the IS militants, a U.S.-led coalition of forces has been striking IS targets in Iraq and Syria from the air, which Washington said is not in coordination with Syria, though the Syrian government has also viewed the IS as its enemy. Endit