US Secretary of State John Kerry has slammed as “disruptive to peace” remarks by his Syrian counterpart who has described President Bashar al-Assad’s ouster as a “red line.”
Speaking after talks with European allies in Paris on Sunday, Kerry said Walid Muallem was “clearly trying to disrupt the process… (he was) clearly trying to send a message of deterrence to others.”
“But the fact is (Assad’s) strongest sponsors, Russia and Iran, have both adopted… an approach which dictates that there must be a political transition and that we must have a presidential election at some time,” Kerry said on the eve of a new round of peace talks in Geneva.
Previous talks collapsed in February, after the so-called High Negotiations Committee (HNC), which is backed by Saudi Arabia, insisted on Assad’s removal as a prerequisite for any peace process.
Muallem told a Damascus news conference on Saturday that “we will not talk with anyone who…