'Assad Must Go' Mantra No Longer Viable, UK Foreign Secretary Says

UK Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson said Wednesday that while Syrian President Bashar Assad may fear punishment for civilian deaths in the country, the old slogan of “Assad must go” is no longer tenable.
“It’s the fear of indictment that is probably most powerful than anything else, but the old mantra of “Assad must go” is certainly not one that is working at the moment,” Johnson told the UK House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee while answering a question on whether there is a way for the United Kingdom to influence Assad’s departure or indictment.
Johnson added that with Assad currently controlling 75 percent of the population and 50 percent of the territory, there is “a huge amount of slaughter still to come,” so the best thing would be “to get round the table in Geneva and begin the process of a new constitutional settlement for Syria.”