US secretary of state John Kerry said on Friday it might be possible for the Syrian government and rebel forces to cooperate against ISIS without Syrian President Bashar al-Assad having first left pow
US secretary of state John Kerry said on Friday it might be possible for the Syrian government and rebel forces to cooperate against ISIS without Syrian President Bashar al-Assad having first left power.
However, Mr Kerry said it would be “exceedingly difficult” to achieve this if rebel forces that have been fighting against Mr Assad for more than four years did not have some confidence that the Syrian leader would eventually go.
He was asked during a visit to Greece whether Mr Assad’s departure was a precondition for Western-backed rebels to cooperate with government troops against ISIS, which has captured a swathe of Syria and Iraq and carried out a string of attacks in other countries. “With respect to the question of Mr Assad and the timing, I think the answer is ... it is not clear that he would have to ‘go’ if there was clarity with respect to what his future might or might not be,” he said.
