U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry delivers remarks at the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee's 100th Anniversary Celebration at the National Women in the Arts Museum in Washington, DC, on December 9, 2013. Photo: State Department.

USA Today – Secretary of State John Kerry on Wednesday sharply rebuked Syrian President Bashar Assad at the international peace conference on the Syrian Civil War, asserting that Assad has held the country “hostage” and cannot remain in power.

“Mutual consent, which is what has brought us here, for a transition government means that that government cannot be formed with someone that is objected to by one side or the other. That means that Bashar Assad will not be part of that transition government,” Kerry told the Geneva conference in Montreux, Switzerland. “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,” he added.

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