France Urges Arab League to Strengthen Syria Mission as Qatar Admits Errors Were Made
إقرأ هذا الخبر بالعربية
France on Thursday urged the Arab League to strengthen its monitoring mission in Syria amid concerns its observers have failed to stem bloodletting in the country.
The French foreign ministry's deputy spokesman, Romain Nadal, also called on the Arab grouping to accept help in organizing the mission, in particular from the United Nations.
"Given the risks of manipulation and concealment, all contributions to strengthen the effectiveness of the observers' work in Syria are useful, particularly those of the United Nations," Nadal said.
"We encourage the Arab League to use all means possible to strengthen this mission so that observers can move independently throughout Syrian territory and have all necessary contact with Syrian civil society," he said.
The Arab League has turned to the U.N. for help after admitting "mistakes" in its Syria monitoring mission.
Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Hamad bin Jassem al-Thani, who heads an Arab League task force on Syria, on Wednesday discussed obtaining "technical help" for the mission with U.N. leader Ban Ki-moon in New York, Kuwait's KUNA news agency reported.
He also admitted "some mistakes" had been made by the mission.
Syrian opposition groups say the monitors have been kept under too tight a rein in the country and that hundreds of people have been killed despite the presence of the observers.
The observers have been in Syria since December 26 trying to assess the regime's implementation of a peace agreement aimed at ending the violence that according to U.N. estimates has killed more than 5,000 people since March.
05 January 2012, 08:05
11
mr. P.M. you can monitor much better from your home, these monitors are a joke, take them back
05 January 2012, 09:58
11
all monitors came from non democratic arab countries , how can they be monitoring a democratie issue , cant be ,
the only solution is to democratize all arab and gulf countries
king ,emir cheik do not exist in a democracy
05 January 2012, 12:14
10
@oua nabka: Nor do eternal presidents or inherited presidentships exist in a democracy ;-)
05 January 2012, 12:29
10
@sweating_demon: lol, you are totally right.
King, emir or president might look like different words, but in the Arab world they actually refer to the same concept and that is a life-time leader with absolute power.
I would say a democracy cannot have life-time leaders with absolute power regardless if they are kings, emirs or presidents ;-)
A president or a prime minister might have much power, but the people should have the right to vote him out in 4 years if he/she abused his/her powers or became corrupted (OK, this might not apply for the Italians, because somehow they still elected Berlusconi 4 times as the president ;-) ).
05 January 2012, 13:14
00
ur right guys , even feodal , chiefs , and heads of parties that stay forever and then the sons take over and so on , ....
they should put a time limit for all positions in the administration
05 January 2012, 13:31
10
their "mistake" that they didn't go along the saudi-usa-zionist plan.
what a shame...so much was invested in them and didn't work
05 January 2012, 13:31
10
their "mistake" that they didn't go along the saudi-usa-zionist plan.
what a shame...so much was invested in them and didn't work
