WESTERN COUNTRIES CALL FOR MORE ACCESS FOR AL
Though western countries acknowledged the progress made by the AL mission with the cooperation of the Syrian government, they can not take breath but urge the government to give more openness.
U.S. State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland told reporters Thursday, "We've seen a modest prisoner release, but it appears that the most important high-profile political activists have not been released. And we also want to see Syria opened to the press."
"So, unfortunately, violence continuing, the Syrian regime still propagating violence against its own people, but in some places where the monitors have deployed, we see some positive signs, but not enough," she said.
Nuland warned that if the Syrian government did not fulfill all promises to the Arab League, "more action and more pressure are going to be required," citing potential actions at the UN Security Council and increased sanctions.
On the other hand, France said Thursday that the Arab monitors headed to more Syrian protest hubs after accusing brevity of the monitoring visit.
The French Foreign Ministry said on Wednesday that Arab League observers' visit was too brief to well assess the real situation in Syria's protest hub of Homs.
It urged "Observers of the Arab League should be able to promptly return to this martyrdom city (Homs), to move freely and have all the necessary contacts with the people."
Russia urged Damascus to deal positively with the observers and ensure them free movement.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said Wednesday that the observers should visit any part of Syria to come out with an independent and objective vision toward events in the country and urged the Syrian opposition to support the task of the observers.
