DHAKA: US state secretary John Kerry called on Monday for a peace conference on Syria ‘very soon’ but said peace would not be possible without a transition government to replace president Bashar Assad.

‘We believe it is urgent to set a day, to convene the conference and work toward a new Syria,’ Kerry told reporters after meeting United Nations special envoy to Syria Lakhdar Brahimi in London, according to The Jerusalem Post.

‘We believe that president Assad has lost the legitimacy necessary to be a cohesive force that could bring people together,’ he said, adding, ‘there has to be a transition government in Syria to permit the possibility of peace’.

BDST: 1735 HRS, OCT 14, 2013
RoR/SRS