Ammon News - AMMONNEWS - The regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad is no longer qualified or entitled to continue to rule Syria, a senior Iraqi official said on Saturday.

Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister Saleh al-Mutlaq said in statements to journalists at the World Economic Forum held in the Dead Sea in Jordan that Iraq supports a peaceful transition of power in Syria in line with international support for the Geneva talks that seeks to form a transitional government in Syria.

Al-Mutlaq reiterated however that Iraq is concerned with the increasing presence and control of Islamist extremists fighters on the Syrian front, stressing instead that the Syrian opposition has not showed to the world until now that it is united enough to form a transitional government to thwart the influence of Islamist extremists there.