Nations Who Want Assad Out of Syria Don't Really Have a Plan

Nobody actually wants to do anything

Western and Arab states demanding Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's exit are under pressure to produce a plan to make that happen, but their unwillingness to act outside a deadlocked U.N. Security Council leaves them looking fractured and powerless.

Foreign ministers and senior diplomats from the "Friends of Syria"—a group that includes the United States, France, Saudi Arabia and Turkey—are due to meet in New York on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly on Friday.

"I just expect ideas to be presented. There will be no concrete plans," Arab League Secretary General Nabil El-Erabi told Reuters. "Governments are not ready to put plans into action and the Security Council is not agreeing on anything."