Kerry: US Will Have to Negotiate with Assad

US Secretary of State John Kerry, photo by EPA/BGNES

The United States will have to negotiate with Syrian President Bashar Assad, US Secretary of State John Kerry told CBS News on Sunday.

"We have to negotiate in the end. We've always been willing to negotiate in the context of the Geneva I process," the US top diplomat said in an interview broadcast on Sunday, referring to the June 30, 2012 conference on Syria.

Kerry, as cited by the BBC News, made clear that the United States "reignited" efforts to find a political solution to end the four-year civil war in Syria.

The US Secretary of State also noted that the US and its allies would probably have to increase pressure on Assad to begin negotiations.

According to The Syrian Observatory of Human Rights (sohr), more than 215 000 people have been killed in Syria's civil war, which is entering into its fifth year.

According to the SOHR, as cited by Deutsche Welle, nearly a third of the victims are civilians and more than 10 000 children.

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