Syria rejects Arab League Assad exit proposal

Syria rejects a call by the Arab League for President Bashar al-Assad to give up power, foreign ministry spokesman Jihad Makdissi said at a media conference on Monday.

"We are sorry that the Arab League has descended to this level concerning a member state of this institution," he said.

"This decision only concerns the Syrian people, who are the sole masters of fate of their governments."

"If the Arab nations who met in Doha were honest about wanting to stop the bloodshed they would have stopped supplying arms... they would stop their instigation and propaganda," he said. "All their statements are hypocritical."

The Arab League on Monday called on Assad to swiftly step aside in order to end the fighting that has swept across the country.

"There is agreement on the need for the rapid resignation of President Bashar al-Assad," Qatar's Prime Minister Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al-Thani told journalists at the end of the ministerial meeting in Doha.

The Arab League also urged the rebel Free Syrian Army to form a transitional government of national unity.

"We call on the opposition and the Free Syrian Army to form a government of national unity," Sheikh Hamad said as he delivered the results of the Arab League meeting.

He urged Assad to take the "courageous" decision in order to save his country where fierce fighting continued to rage between government troops and rebels.

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