UNITED NATIONS — U.N. Security Council members unanimously approved a U.N. resolution Friday endorsing a peace process for Syria including a cease-fire and talks between the Damascus government and the opposition, but the draft makes no mention of the most contentious issue – the future role of Syrian President Bashar Assad.

The resolution makes clear that the blueprint it endorses will not end the conflict, deep into its fifth year with well over 300,000 killed, because “terrorist groups,” including the Islamic State group and the al-Qaida-linked al-Nusra Front, are not part of the cease-fire.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry praised “the unprecedented degree of unity” in the council and called the resolution “a milestone.”

The agreement “gives the Syrian people a real choice, not between Assad and Daesh, but between war and peace,” Kerry said, using the Arabic acronym for the Islamic State extremists.

He made clear that Assad must go if there is to be peace in Syria, saying that “Assad has lost the ability … to unite the country.”


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