US Secretary of State John Kerry on Tuesday called for Bashar al-Assad to step aside in Syria, The Hill reported.
Kerry said violence could end after a ceasefire “if one man would merely make it known to the world that he doesn’t have to be part of the long-term future, he’ll help manage Syria out of this mess, and then go off into the sunset as most people do after a period of public life.”
 “If he were to do that, then you could stop the violence and quickly move to a [managed transition],” Kerry added of Assad during an interview on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe.”
The U.S. has long said that Assad had lost legitimacy and needed to step aside, but has failed to see that come to fruition over the past year with the rise of the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISISKerry on Tuesday pushed back on the notion that it is too late to resolve the situation in Syria, which has been plagued by civil war for more than four years.
“Russia and Iran should not be so stubborn here that they tie this whole thing up simply because of one person,” Kerry said on MSNBC.
White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest maintained during an appearance on the same program that the U.S. is making progress in Syria amid efforts to degrade ISIS.
President Obama and Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday gave dueling addresses at the United Nations on how to best deal with the Syrian civil war.