"Our position hasn't changed and I don't think that's what Secretary Kerry was trying to convey," Earnest said when asked whether Kerry, after meeting Russian President Vladimir Putin, signaled a change in the Obama administration’s position for Assad to step down from power in Syria.
On Tuesday, Kerry stated after meeting with Putin in Moscow, that the United States and its partners were not trying to replace the government of Syrian President Bashar Assad.
When asked what President Barack Obama thought would be acceptable for creating a transitional government in Syria, Earnest said such ideas would be discussed during the Friday’s UN Security Council meeting on the Syrian conflict.
Syria has been in a state of civil war since 2011 as opposition factions and militant Islamist groups, such as Daesh and the Nusra Front, fight the Syrian Army in order to topple the Assad government.
