Efforts to convene a new international peace conference on Syria are to intensify after the US, Britain and Arab governments on Tuesday urged reluctant opposition leaders to take part on the clear understanding that a planned transitional government in Damascus could not include President Bashar al-Assad.  John Kerry, the US secretary of state, said after high-level talks in London that he hoped the much-delayed Geneva II conference would finally be held next month, but he conceded that anti-Assad rebels had to make their own decision about coming to the negotiating table to end a conflict that has killed around 100,000 people and made millions refugees since it erupted in March 2011.  "They have to make up their mind," Kerry said. "None of us are going to prejudge what they will do in that process."  Kerry, along with William Hague, the UK's foreign secretary, and fellow western and Arab foreign ministers, spent the day grappling with last year's Geneva I conference communique, which was backed by Russia and China and called for "transition by mutual consent". Assad said on Monday that he saw no reason not to stand for president again in 2014 – an upbeat and defiant statement that seemed to dispel any lingering illusions about his readiness to concede power.  "When the transitional governing body is established, Assad and his close associates with blood on their hands will have no role in Syria," declared the London 11 – the core members of the Friends of Syria group. Saudi Arabia, embroiled in a sharp public spat with the US over its policies towards both Syria and Iran, had also backed the communique, Kerry said.  Ahmed Jarba, president of the opposition Syrian National Coalition (SNC), said in his opening remarks at the talks that Assad could not stay. "The Sultan must leave," he insisted. "Geneva cannot succeed and we cannot take part if it allows Assad to gain more time to spill the blood of our people while the world looks on." Diplomats said the communique's words about Assad and associates were designed to address precisely that point.  Hague said the crisis needed a speedy solution, but admitted that formidable obstacles remain because Moscow and Beijing refuse to call explicitly for the Syrian leader's departure. "We are not setting a precondition for Geneva," Hague told reporters. "We are making clear our expectation of the outcome. Mutual consent means it can only be agreed with the consent of the Syrian National Coalition so Assad would play no role in the future government of Syria." Kerry added: "There is no way that mutual consent includes Bashar al-Assad."  Jarba's SNC is due to make its decision in early November amid signs that the conference may be held around the end of the month. Other groups, including the Syrian National Council, have said they will not attend. Even more damaging, 11 Islamist and jihadi groups, including the main fighting formations on the ground in Syria, have refused to attend or to recognise the authority of the SNC.  Jarba said after the meeting that he had stressed the importance of setting up humanitarian corridors to relieve suffering. He had also demanded the release of detained men, women and children, and setting a fixed timetable for all phases of negotiation. But there was no detail on new aid being offered to the Supreme Military Council of the Free Syrian Army by unspecified countries. The Saudis, Qatar, the UAE and Turkey have all been pressing for more assistance to the armed opposition in the face of US objections.  US-Russian co-operation over Syria moved to a higher level last month in the wake of the agreement to force Assad to surrender his chemical weapons after their apparent use by the regime – still denied by Assad and Russia – in Damascus. But Kerry warnedon Tuesday that removing chemical weapons did not end the crisis. "It does not remove the human catastrophe that is unfolding before the world's eyes," he said. "I don't know anybody, including the Russians, who believes there is a military solution to this conflict. It is clear that both sides will continue to fight, with the greatest victims the Syrian people themselves. This war will not come to an end on the battlefield. It will end through a negotiated settlement."  Several officials, including the Arab League secretary-general, Nabil Elaraby, have said they expect the Geneva II conference to convene on 23 November, though the US, Russia and the UN have all said no date has been officially set.  Jarba attacked Iran for its use of "mercenaries" in Syria – an apparent attempt to head off moves to bring it to the negotiating table in Geneva. Hague said Iran must support a transitional government in Syria. "If Iran could start from that position as well as the rest of us, then Iran would be more easily included in international discussions on the subject," he said. Kerry said that he had seen "no significant change" by Iran on Syria.
Assad will play no role in transition, says US, UK and Arab governments with hopes expressed that talks start in November