Countries supporting Syria's rebels demanded on Saturday that Iran and Hizbullah stop meddling in the country's civil war, French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said.

"In the text that we have just released, we have demanded that Iran and Hizbullah end their intervention in the conflict," said Fabius, referring to their support for the regime of Bashar Assad.

Secretary of State John Kerry headed to Qatar on Friday on a mission to coordinate with allies on the next steps in Syria as the United States considers how far to go on assisting rebels.

Kerry flew out of Washington on the start of a 12-day trip that will also include meetings in emerging U.S. partner India, an Asia regional conference in Brunei and his latest attempt to revive the Middle East peace process.

Taliban fighters on Friday hailed the rebels' new office in Qatar as evidence of their success on the front lines but vowed to battle on until all U.S. forces leave Afghanistan.

The opening of the office in Qatar was seen as a first step towards a peace deal as the U.S.-led NATO combat mission ends next year, but a furious Kabul accused the rebels of posing as a government-in-exile.

The United States said Thursday that the new Taliban office in Qatar must not be treated as an embassy, as Afghanistan angrily condemned the "theatrical" opening of the new mission.

The Taliban's "Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan" nameplate on the office in Doha has been at the center of a battle between President Hamid Karzai and the United States over U.S. contacts with the Afghan militant group.

A Qatari court on Thursday sentenced five people, among them the emirate's envoy to Belgium, to six years in prison over "negligence" that caused a deadly shopping mall blaze last year, al-Jazeera reported.

All the 19 people killed in the inferno at Doha's Villagio mall on May 28, 2012, were foreigners, including 13 children, four teachers and two firefighters.

The Taliban office opened in Doha to facilitate peace talks does not carry the name of the "Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan," as it appeared earlier, Qatar said on Wednesday.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai denounced as a provocation the use of the formal name of the Islamist movement's government from 1996 until it was toppled in 2001.

Foreign ministers of the "Friends of Syria" group will meet in Doha on Saturday to discuss aid for the rebels, including military help, a French diplomat said.

Ministers of Britain, France, the United States, Germany, Italy, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Turkey and Egypt will attend the meeting, the source said Wednesday.

Caretaker Foreign Minister Adnan Mansour on Wednesday denied media reports circulated by a number of websites about “the expulsion of 25 Lebanese citizens from the State of Qatar to Lebanon.”

The reports claimed that the Lebanese expats would arrive in Beirut on Wednesday evening after Qatari authorities refused to renew their residency permits.

The Taliban opened a political office in Doha on Tuesday, as Washington said it hoped to begin talks with its Afghan foe in the Qatari capital "in a couple of days."

The group, which has waged a deadly insurgency against U.S.-led troops ever since its government in Kabul was overthrown after the September 11, 2001 attacks in the United States, pledged it would never allow Afghan territory to be used to threaten a foreign country.

Afghan government envoys are to travel to Qatar to try to open peace talks with the Taliban on a possible deal ending 12 years of conflict, President Hamid Karzai said Tuesday.

Karzai's announcement was a boost for the moribund peace process, which has made little ground despite mounting pressure as the withdrawal of 100,000 NATO troops from Afghanistan looms next year.