Iraq Rejects Arab League Call for Assad to Go

Iraq on Monday rejected an Arab League call for embattled Syrian President Bashar Assad to swiftly give up power, describing it as interfering in Damascus's sovereignty.

"This call is not appropriate at this time because it is interfering in the sovereignty of another country," Deputy Foreign Minister Labid Abbawi told Agence France Presse. "There are other means to secure a peaceful transition of authority."

In a joint statement issued early Monday after their meeting in Doha, Arab League foreign ministers called on Assad to "renounce power," promising that he and his family would be offered "a safe exit".

"There is agreement on the need for the rapid resignation of President Bashar Assad," Qatar's Prime Minister Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani told journalists after the Arab League meeting wound up in the small hours Monday.

The Arab League called on the Free Syrian Army rebels and the opposition to form a transitional government of national unity along with the "de facto national authority", without detailing who that authority might be.