Kerry, Arab League call for transitional Syrian government

LONDON (AP) — US Secretary of State John Kerry and the UN-Arab League envoy for Syria said Monday that an international conference to set up a Syrian transitional government must be organized urgently and held as soon as possible.

“There has to be a transition government, there has to be a new governing entity in Syria in order to permit the possibility of peace,” Kerry said. He said it was imperative to get the so-called “Geneva II” conference organized by a mid-November target the United Nations has set.

Kerry and envoy Lakdhar Brahimi spoke to reporters after meeting at the residence of the US Ambassador to Britain.

“There can be, there will be, a political solution if everyone gets together and works for it,” Brahimi said. “Very soon we have to set a precise date.”

Syria’s civil war, now in its third year, has killed more than 100,000 people.

A car bomb in a rebel held town in the northwest part of the country killed at least a dozen people on Monday, a day after two car bombs exploded in Damascus near the state television building. Car bombs are becoming more common in the conflict.

“We believe it is urgent to set a date, convene the conference and work towards a new Syria,” Kerry said.

He said that Syrian President Bashar Assad “has lost the legitimacy to be able to be a cohesive force that could bring people together.”

The planned Geneva II conference is aimed at implementing an agreement hammered out last year in the same Swiss city that calls for the establishment of a transitional government that would run Syria and prepare it for democratic elections.

Brahimi said he’ll travel to the Middle East this week to see representatives of all sides to try to plan and set a specific date for the meeting.

Kerry was in London on the last stop of a an extended two-week overseas trip that has also taken him to Japan, Indonesia, Brunei, Malaysia and Afghanistan.

Copyright 2013 The Associated Press.