the united  states will have to negotiate with syrian president bashar assad for a political transition in syria and is exploring  ways to pressure him into agreeing to talks, us secretary of  state john kerry has admitted washington has long insisted that assad must be replaced  through a negotiated, political transition, but the rise of a  common enemy, hardline militant group islamic state, has evidently softened the administration's stance towards him in an interview broadcast on sunday, kerry did not repeat  the standard us line that assad had lost all legitimacy and  had to go syria's civil war is now into its fifth year, with  hundreds of thousands killed and millions of syrians displaced scroll down for video  admission: secretary of state john kerry admitted sunday that the white house is trying to engage the syrian dictator in negotiations  'we have to negotiate in the end,' kerry told cbs news 'we've always  been willing to negotiate in the context of the geneva i  process,' he added, referring to a 2012 conference which called  for a negotiated transition to end the conflict kerry said the united states and other countries, which he  did not name, were exploring ways to reignite the diplomatic  process to end the conflict in syria 'what we're pushing for is to get him (assad) to come and do  that, and it may require that there be increased pressure on him  of various kinds in order to do that,' the secretary of state  said new problem: the us has been more willing to deal with assad since the rise to power of isis in syria and iraq  opposition: assad's regime is under attack from rebel soldiers, such as those above, as well as isis's hordes  'we've made it very clear to people that we are looking at  increased steps that can help bring about that pressure,' he  added the united states led efforts to convene a un backed peace  talks in geneva last year between western backed syrian  opposition representatives and a government delegation the  talks collapsed after two rounds and no fresh talks have been  scheduled russia convened some opposition and government figures in  january for talks on the crisis but they yielded little progress  and the main opposition coalition boycotted them 'to get the assad regime to negotiate, we're going to have  to make it clear to him that there is a determination by  everybody to seek that political outcome and change his  calculation about negotiating,' kerry said 'that's under way right now  and i am convinced that, with  the efforts of our allies and others, there will be increased  pressure on assad' syria sank into civil war after a peaceful street uprising  against four decades of assad family rule began in march 2011 the revolt spiraled into an armed insurgency, which has deepened  with the rise of islamic state and other hardliners assad seems more likely to survive the syrian crisis than at  any point since it began iran's support for assad is as solid  as ever, with russia showing no sign of abandoning him before: us syria negotiations haven't always been this strained he is pictured above with nancy pelosi in damascus in 2007, before civil war broke out  us led forces started air strikes against islamic state  group in syria and iraq in the summer washington has said the  campaign in syria is not coordinated with the syrian military,  which also views the group as its enemy the war has killed more than 200,000 people and displaced  close to half the population, according to the united nations damascus accuses its western and gulf arab opponents of seeking  to destroy the country by providing aid to an insurgency now  dominated by jihadists, who also pose a threat to the west assad appears to be betting that the us led campaign  against islamic state will force washington to engage with him
state white house assad years isis syrian 15 years
secretary of state said white house is trying to 'pressure' assad to talk . administration has been calling for his removal for years . softening stance comes alongside the rise of isis in assad's back yard . syrian president has been in power 15 years and is presiding over civil war 