Paris (dpa) – French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe said Tuesday he was “skeptical” about the chances of success for the Arab observer mission currently in Syria. “The conditions in which this observer mission is taking place warrant being clarified,” Juppe said in an interview with France's i-Tele channel. “Can they really access information freely?,” he wondered, admitting to being “skeptical”. Last week, the Arab League dispatched around 60 observers to Syria to check if the government is complying with a plan to halt a nine-month state crackdown against protesters demanding the overthrow of President Bashar al-Assad. The United Nations estimates that more than 5,000 people have been killed since the start of the uprising, causing an international outcry. The observers are to check whether the government is keeping its promise to withdraw the military from cities, release hundreds of prisoners and engage in dialogue with the opposition. But the mission has struggled to gain credibility in the eyes of Syria's opposition. Activists say scores of people have been killed across the country since the observers arrived, raising questions about their effectiveness. The Arab Parliament, a body that advises the Arab League, called on Sunday for the immediate withdrawal of the mission, saying it was being used by authorities in Damascus as a cover for ongoing human rights abuses. Reporting back on the mission's findings so far, Arab League chief Nabil al-Arabi said Monday that there were still shooting attacks in the country but that the military had withdrawn from many cities and that the Arab observers had been able to provide assistance to people in the flashpoint city of Homs. Juppe said it was “truly necessary that the truth be established” and called for Russia to back a UN resolution condemning Assad's regime. He also repeated France's position that the regime “really has no future.” BM ShortURL: http://goo.gl/lDee2 Tags: Arab League, France Section: Europe, Latest News, Syria
