U.S. assures France it has not changed stance on Syria - Fabius
BRUSSELS, March 16 (Reuters) - France's foreign minister said on Monday U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry had assured him Washington had not changed its stand on Syria after saying it would have to negotiate with President Bashar al-Assad.
"I spoke to John Kerry this morning on the phone. He assured me there was absolutely nothing new in the U.S. position on Syria," Laurent Fabius told reporters at an EU foreign ministers' meeting in Brussels.
In any case, Fabius said, the French position on the Syrian crisis had not changed.
"The solution is a political transition (which) must both preserve regime institutions - not Mr Bashar al-Assad - ... and include the opposition of course. That is the direction we are working in. It is the only realistic solution," he said.
In a CBS interview, Kerry did not repeat the standard U.S. 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.
"We have to negotiate in the end," Kerry said when asked whether the United States would be willing to negotiate with Assad.
But State Department spokeswoman Marie Harf said later that Kerry was not specifically referring to Assad. She reiterated that Washington would never negotiate with the Syrian leader. (Reporting by Adrian Croft; Editing by Tom Heneghan)
