The Russians must be aware that their support for Mr Asad is not making them popular elsewhere in the Arab world, but if they are not they are about to be told so by the head of the Arab League, Nabil al-ʹAraby, who was charged by a meeting of League foreign ministers in Doha on 22 July with visiting China and Russia to discuss their habit of vetoing Security Council resolutions on Syria. "Our message to the Russians will be, with clarity and frankness, that the veto decision they took is viewed as being against Arab interests," Mr ʹAraby said in an interview published on 24 July. "We hope for a review of the matter. Especially given that they know that the days of the current regime in Syria are numbered." He also claimed that the Doha meeting – which called on Mr Asad to step down, an invitation he is unlikely to accept – marked a hardening of the League's position on Syria, and that "there is now no talk about political reform, but a transfer of power."