Syria Now Prepared to Discuss Assad's Resignation

After months of bitter struggle between the rapidly failing Syrian government and its people, one major government official in the Syrian government finally put the resignation of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad on the table.

Qadri Jamil, Syria's Deputy Prime Minister, told an audience in Moscow that while the Syrian government will not force Assad's resignation as a precondition for negotiations, it is prepared to negotiate over precisely what should be done using Assad's potential resignation as a bargaining chip.

Victoria Nuland, spokeswoman for the State Department, didn't react particularly enthusiastically to the news, according to the BBC:

"Frankly, we didn't see anything terribly new there," said US State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland.

"Obviously, the longer this goes on, the harder it is, but we still believe that the faster Assad goes, the more chance there is to quickly move on to the day after," she added.

Granted, Nuland is right that Syria's broader stance (calling for no foreign intervention and deepening its ties to Russia) is not particularly new or encouraging.

However, the BBC does note that this is the first time the Syrian regime has admitted that every eventuality is on the table regarding Assad. That is quite a shift, and signals that even Assad's own government has grown tired of defending the embattled dictator.