French President Nicolas Sarkozy demanded Tuesday that Syrian strongman Bashar Assad step down, accusing him of overseeing sickening "massacres" against his own people.

Sarkozy told an audience of French military personnel that the Syrian people should be allowed "to freely choose their own destiny" after facing what he denounced as brutal persecution that inspires "disgust and revulsion.”

Saboteurs attacked a gas pipeline near the flashpoint Syrian city of Homs on Tuesday, the official SANA news agency reported.

"A terrorist group has targeted a gas pipeline near Rastan" in the central province of Homs, said SANA, referring to the bastion of protests against the regime of President Bashar Assad.

Egyptians were voting on Tuesday in the final round of a landmark post-revolution election that has propelled Islamist movements into the center stage of politics.

Around 15 million eligible voters have their chance to cast ballots for the first parliament since an uprising overthrew veteran president Hosni Mubarak last February.

French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe said Tuesday the Arab observer mission in Syria needed to be "clarified" and complained that Russia was blocking any U.N. condemnation of the Damascus regime.

"The conditions under which this observer mission is operating should be clarified," Juppe told French television I-Tele, adding that he was "skeptical" about its progress.

Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak said on Monday that the past week's Iranian war games in the Strait of Hormuz were a sign of the regime's "distress" in the face of tightening Western sanctions.

"We saw reports about the large Iranian drill near the Strait of Hormuz today, which included missile firings," Barak told members of his Atzmaut (Independence) faction.

Switzerland's highest court has refused to lift an entry ban on a cousin of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, who was seeking to travel to the country to fight sanctions imposed by Bern.

Hafez Makhlouf, who heads Damascus' secret services, counts among the regime's hardliners, and is alleged to have been in charge of the brutal repression against demonstrators.

Saudi authorities announced Monday the names of 23 men wanted for involvement in trouble during the past few months in Shiite areas of the kingdom's Eastern Province.

The group is accused mainly of "possessing illegal firearms and opening fire on the public and police, in addition to using innocent people as shields," the interior ministry said in a statement carried by SPA state news agency.

The family of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has only "a few weeks" left in control of the strife-torn country, Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak told MPs on Monday.

"The Assad family has no more than a few weeks to remain in control in Syria," Barak told the parliament's prestigious foreign affairs and defense committee in remarks quoted by the committee spokesman.

The Arab League chief said on Monday that snipers and gunfire continue to threaten civilian lives in Syria and called for the shootings to end, as activists heaped criticism on the mission.

But Nabil al-Arabi defended the observers in his first remarks since the Arab monitors were deployed in Syria a week ago, saying the "mission needs more time."

Gaza's Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniya will Monday meet the head of an Islamic aid group whose Gaza-bound vessel was stormed by Israeli troops in 2010 in a raid that left nine activists dead.

Haniya, who is making his first trip abroad since Hamas rose to power in Gaza in 2007, will tour the Turkish passenger ship Mavi Marmara and meet relatives of the victims.