French Foreign Minister says people’s aspirations must be taken into consideration everywhere, including in Saudi Arabia

French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe said on Thursday that Arab leaders needed to understand that the tide of protests sweeping the region would change things for good and that all countries, including Saudi Arabia, needed to take into account the aspirations of the Arab people.

"The process going on in the Arab world is irreversible. People's aspirations must be taken into consideration everywhere, including in Saudi Arabia," he told reporters.

Juppe said it may take the coalition of Western powers days or weeks to destroy Muammar Gaddafi's military, but it will not require months. "The destruction of Gaddafi's military capacity is a matter of days or weeks, certainly not months," he noted.

He also defended the pace of the operation. "You can't expect us to achieve our objective in just five days," he told reporters.