The Arab League Tuesday called for an emergency meeting to discuss whether to withdraw the group's monitors from Syria, where security forces are still killing protesters despite the observers' presence, an Arab official said. The meeting will take place Saturday in Cairo, where the Arab League is based. Meanwhile, French President Nicolas Sarkozy has said the Syrian regime was committing massacres. He also called on President Bashar Al-Assad to leave power. Sarkozy's comments came during a New Year's address at a Navy airbase in Lanveoc-Poulmic, France. “Massacres being committed by the Syrian regime” have aroused disgust around the world, he said. Al-Assad should allow Syrians to decide their own future, he added. Activists reported more bloodshed Tuesday. The British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said security forces shot dead three people in the restive city of Homs. The Arab League's Deputy Secretary General, Ahmed Bin Heli, said the meeting on Saturday will look into the first report by the head of the monitoring mission, which began Dec. 27. The meeting will not make a final decision, but will send its recommendations to another, high-level ministerial meeting.
