Five Arab countries and Turkey have reiterated that President Bashar al-Assad should have no role in the future of Syria, as Russia and the United States proposed a peace conference.
The foreign ministers of Egypt, Jordan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the UAE, as well as that of Turkey -- all supporters of the Syrian opposition -- expressed their stand at a meeting late Monday in Abu Dhabi.
The ministers backed a June 2012 Geneva plan for a transitional government in Syria as long as "it takes in consideration that president Assad and his aides with blood-stained hands would have no place in Syria's future.