Secretary John Kerry and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov in Montreux ahead of Geneva II Conference on Syria
Secretary of State John Kerry told the opening day crowd at the Geneva conference on Syria that Assad was a real problem - but only after lauding his Russian co-hosts who are directly responsible for keeping Assad in power. Here's Kerry speaking out of both sides of his mouth at the same time: "I thank the Russian Federation and Foreign Minister Lavrov for his cooperation and efforts together with us, working to try to initiate this process...[W]e see only one option: a negotiated transition government formed by mutual consent...Bashar Assad will not be part of that transition government. There is no way – no way possible in the imagination – that the man who has led the brutal response to his own people could regain the legitimacy to govern."