Syria rejects Arab League Assad exit proposal

Syria has rejected a call by the Arab League for President Bashar al-Assad to give up power. "We are sorry that the Arab League has descended to this level concerning a member state of this institution," foreign ministry spokesman Jihad Makdissi said at a media conference on Monday. "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," Makdissi said. "All their statements are hypocritical." According to Al Jazzera, 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. (Al Jazzera)