MONTREUX, Switzerland — Syrian peace talks began today in Switzerland with a bitter clash over President Bashar Assad’s future.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said Assad’s decision to meet peaceful dissent with brutal force had robbed him of all legitimacy while Assad’s foreign minister declared that no one outside Syria had the right to remove the government. The Syrian opposition said the whole point of the peace conference was to create a transitional government without Assad.

Less than three hours into peace talks that have been on the verge of collapse since they were first floated, the two sides seemed impossibly far apart.