Iraq puts reservation on AL’s call for Assad’s stepping down from power

Baghdad (IraqiNews.com)-The Iraqi government expressed its reservation towards the decision of the Arab League related to calling the Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to peacefully step down from his post.

The government spokesman Ali al-Dabagh said in a press statement Monday that “The Iraqi government refuses and puts it reservation concerning the Arab League’s resolution calling for the resignation of the Syrian President because this is sovereign decision and exclusively for Syrian people to take.”

Several cities in Syria witness violence for more than a year due to clashes between the Syrian regular army and gunmen in addition to demonstrations and popular protests demand to topple the regime in Syria.

The Secretary-General of the Arab League, Nabil Al Arabi, called the Syrian President, Bashar al-Assad, and his family for “safe exit, if he stepped down from power,” during a meeting of the Arab foreign ministers, held in the Qatari capital, Doha, on Monday morning.

Damascus rejected the call.

The Syrian government assured that it would not use chemical or biological weapons, except in the event of “external aggression.”