Kerry: Assad not part of Syria's future

US Secretary of State John Kerry stressed here Friday that there is no political solution "whatsoever" if Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad "is not discussing a transition and if he thinks he's going to be part of that future." Kerry told reporters, as he met with his Canadian and Mexican counterparts that "I believe, as we begin to get to Geneva and begin to get into this process, that it will become clear that there is no political solution whatsoever if Assad is not discussing a transition and if he thinks he's going to be part of that future. It's not going to happen." He added "the people who are the opponents of the Syrian regime "will never, ever stop. There will be a low-grade insurgency at least, and worse, potentially even a civil war if it continues because they will not stop." He noted "we also are not out of options with respect to what we may be able to do to increase the pressure and further change the calculation, nor are other players short of an ability to be able to have an impact here." "They can bluster, they can protest, they can put out distortions. The bottom line is we are going to Geneva to implement Geneva I. And if Assad doesn't do that, he will invite greater response in various ways from various people over a period of time," Kerry stressed. He added that he is "not particularly surprised that he (Assad) is trying to divert this. He's been doing this for months, trying to make himself the protector of Syria against extremists, when he himself has even been funding some of those extremists, even purposefully ceding some territory to them in order to make them more of a problem so he can make the argument that he is somehow the protector against them." "Nobody's going to be fooled. We're not going to be fooled by this process, " the U.S. top diplomat remarked.