Diplomatic Briefing
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Newsline: 10 allies join U.S. in move to expel Syria diplomats
The United States joined with 10 nations to expel top Syrian diplomats, increasing international pressure on President Bashar Assad. In Damascus, the United Nations envoy said the uprising had reached “a tipping point” after a massacre of more than 100 villagers, nearly half of them children. In his remarks, Kofi Annan, the envoy for the U.N. and the Arab League, was dismissive of the Syrian government refrain that outsiders were responsible for the bloodshed. After meeting with Assad on Tuesday, he called on the Syrian president to take “bold steps” to end the fighting and salvage a peace plan that has been increasingly criticized for failing to end the violence. Even as Annan made his appeals, in a coordinated action at least 11 nations expelled the Syrian diplomats to express outrage over the deaths of 108 villagers in Houla, near Homs, on Friday. But Syria’s diplomatic chastening did little to sway its public posture, demonstrating the limited leverage of the West as it continues to look to Annan and a peace initiative that has shown no sign of ushering in an end to more than 14 months of violence. With little room to maneuver, the United States joined Australia, Canada, Britain, Bulgaria, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Switzerland and Spain, to oust Syrian diplomats. In Washington, the State Department said the United States was evicting the Syrian charge d’affaires, Zuheir Jabbour, giving him 72 hours to leave the country. Despite the tough talk, there remained little support for any manner of armed intervention, which is what many Syria analysts and exiles believe is required to make Damascus budge. At the White House, spokesman Jay Carney said that military intervention was not the right course of action at this time because it would provoke wider carnage and chaos.
http://www.orovillemr.com/news/ci_20733430/most-108-syrian-victims-49-them-children-were
Newsline: US Supreme Court rejects appeal from former embassy hostages who wanted to sue Iran
The Supreme Court has declined to revive a lawsuit against Iran filed by Americans held hostage at the U.S. Embassy in Tehran more than 30 years ago. The justices on Tuesday did not comment in letting stand lower court decisions dismissing the $6.6 billion class-action lawsuit. The lower courts found the agreement to release the hostages, known as the Algiers Accords, precluded lawsuits against Iran. The suit argued that legislation in 2008 gave the hostages the right to sue. Fifty-two American diplomats and military officials were held captive for more than a year by a group of Islamist students who supported the Iranian revolution. The hostages were released on Jan. 20, 1981.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/courts_law/supreme-court-rejects-appeal-from-former-embassy-hostages-who-wanted-to-sue-iran/2012/05/29/gJQAtxLtyU_story.html
Newsline: US expels top Syrian diplomat from Washington
The U.S. State Department is kicking out Syria’s top diplomat to Washington, joining several other countries in expelling Syrian officials in a bid to increase pressure on leader Bashar Assad. State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said Tuesday that the U.S. government has given Syria’s charge d’affaires 72 hours to leave the country. “In response to the May 25 massacre in the village of Houla, today the United States informed the Syrian Charge d’Affaires Zuheir Jabbour of his expulsion from the United States,” she said in a statement. “We took this action in coordination with partner countries including Australia, Canada, Spain, the United Kingdom, Italy, France and Germany.”
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2012/05/29/us-expels-top-syrian-diplomat-from-washington-joins-other-nations-in-protest/
Newsline: France, Britain, Australia and Canada expel Syrian diplomats
France, Britain, Australia and Canada are expelling senior Syrian diplomats, officials said Tuesday, increasing pressure on Damascus after a massacre in which the United Nations says families were shot at close range in their homes. French President Francois Hollande told reporters Tuesday that Ambassador Lamia Shakkour will be notified “today or tomorrow” that she must leave. British officials said Tuesday that the U.K. is expelling three Syrian diplomats in protest at the killings, among them Charge d’Affaires Ghassan Dalla, the country’s top ranking diplomat in London. In Canada, Foreign Minister John Baird said in a statement that the Syrian diplomats and their families have five days to leave Canada. Another Syrian diplomat expected in Canada will be refused entry. In Canberra, Australian Foreign Minister Bob Carr said Charge d’Affaires Jawdat Ali, the most senior Syrian diplomat in Australia, is to be expelled along with another diplomat from the Syrian Embassy. He said they were told to leave the country within 72 hours, in response to the massacre in Houla. In Vienna, Foreign Ministry spokesman Nikolaus Lutterotti said the Syrian ambassador is being summoned to the ministry where officials will deliver a very hard protest about the massacre. When asked if the expulsions were EU-wide, Lutterotti said this had not yet been decided. He said the ambassador to Austria would not be expelled as he holds an additional function as the representative to the UN organizations in Vienna. The Syrian ambassador to Britain left the country in March. The United States and Britain have closed their embassies in Syria.
http://wcfcourier.com/news/world/europe/european-nations-australia-expel-syrian-diplomats/article_6ef36bb4-22de-50bb-8aa7-5db147aeaf00.html
Newsline: US Embassy urges PNG to adhere to constitution
The United States Embassy in Papua New Guinea is calling on the country’s politicians to respect the constitution and uphold democratic institutions. In a statement, the Embassy says recent political developments underscore the need for the 2012 national elections to move forward as scheduled. It says it hopes parliament’s recommendation that states of emergency be declared in parts of the country will not disrupt the election campaign or the voting process. The Embassy says the vote is a unique opportunity for Papua New Guineans to shape their country’s future at a critical time in the nation’s history.
http://www.rnzi.com/pages/news.php?op=read&id=68521
Newsline: US journalist denies receiving money from Pakistani Embassy
David Frum, a contributing editor at Newsweek and The Daily Beast and a CNN contributor, who has allegedly been accused of receiving secret funds from the Pakistan Embassy, has strongly denied the charge in a column he wrote on CNN.com. “On Wednesday, Google Alerts brought me a piece of startling news: A lawyer speaking to a tribunal of the Supreme Court of Pakistan had accused me of acting as a paid agent of the government of Pakistan. No, seriously, that’s what the man said.” Frum was responding to a reported statement of prominent SC lawyer Akram Sheikh who, it was reported, had ‘claimed in a statement that Pakistani Embassy provided funds to Harlan Ullman and David Frum for damage control after the memo controversy’. In his response Frum wrote on CNN.com he was so taken aback by the claim that he telephoned Sheikh to ask whether it was true. “We had a short but intense exchange.” He said given that charges against him have gained a hearing inside Pakistan, some kind of answer seems due. Frum wrote: “Where is the fake evidence? The forged check, the bogus wire transfer, the suborned courier? Money always leaves a record.”
http://www.thenews.com.pk/Todays-News-2-111126-David-Frum-denies-receiving-money-from-Pak-Embassy
Newsline: U.S. Embassy officials among the targets of alleged Iran-linked assassination plots in Azerbaijan
In November, the tide of daily cable traffic to the U.S. Embassy in Azerbaijan brought a chilling message for Ambassador Matthew Bryza, then the top U.S. diplomat to the small Central Asian country. A plot to kill Americans had been uncovered, the message read, and embassy officials were on the target list. The details, scant at first, became clearer as intelligence agencies from both countries stepped up their probe. The plot had two strands, U.S. officials learned, one involving snipers with silencer-equipped rifles and the other a car bomb, apparently intended to kill embassy employees or members of their families. Both strands could be traced back to the same place, the officials were told: Azerbaijan’s southern neighbor, Iran. The threat, many details of which were never made public, appeared to recede after Azerbaijani authorities rounded up nearly two dozen people in waves of arrests early this year. Precisely who ordered the hits, and why, was never conclusively determined. But U.S. and Middle Eastern officials now see the attempts as part of a broader campaign by Iran-linked operatives to kill foreign diplomats in at least seven countries over a span of 13 months. The targets have included two Saudi officials, a half-dozen Israelis and — in the Azerbaijan case — several Americans, the officials say.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/us-officials-among-the-targets-of-iran-linked-assassination-plots/2012/05/27/gJQAHlAOvU_story.html
Newsline: U.S. Embassy intervenes to free VOA Correspondent in Ethiopia
Voice of America correspondent Peter Heinlein and his translator were released from police custody in Ethiopia, officials said. Heinlein and his translator Simegineh Yekoye were arrested on the outskirts of Addis Ababa upon leaving a local mosque where they had been filming. VOA said Saturday Heinlein and Simegineh were released and all charges were dropped after an official from the U.S. Embassy’s consular section appeared at the prison Saturday morning. VOA and the Committee to Protect Journalists expressed their relief in a statement Saturday, condemning the “restriction imposed by the Ethiopian government on foreign journalists.” VOA quoted Heinlein as saying he believed his arrest was linked to his reporting on a dispute between Ethiopia’s Muslim minority and the government over the leadership of the nation’s Muslim community.
http://www.upi.com/Top_News/World-News/2012/05/26/VOA-Correspondent-freed/UPI-30121338056520/?spt=hs&or=tn
Newsline: Lady Gaga’s Concert in Indonesia Cancelled After Protests Outside US Embassy
Promoters for American pop singer Lady Gaga said Sunday that her June 3 show in Indonesia has been cancelled after Islamic hard-liners threatened violence if she performs. Concert promotion lawyer Minola Sebayang said that the cancellation was not only about Lady Gaga’s security, but the safety of those who would be watching her. The Islamic Defender’s Front, or FPI, had threatened to deploy 30,000 members to physically prevent Lady Gaga from getting off the plane. More than 52,000 tickets were purchased in advance, making the sold-out show her biggest in Asia.
http://www.voanews.com/content/lady_gagas_indonesia_concert_cancelled/1105814.html
Consular affairs: Iranian-Canadians cry foul at protest over visa rules
Immigration minister Jason Kenney has promised a town hall meeting in Richmond Hill this summer to discuss concerns among Iranian-Canadians over the closure of the embassy’s visa section in Tehran. Iranian-Canadians say the recent closure is hurting their families and not the intended target, the Iranian regime. Mr. Kenney was taking part in a Conservative party dinner with Richmond Hill MP Costas Menagakis while members of the Iranian community quietly demonstrated outside, waving flags and placards reading “Closure of the visa section is hurting 120,000 Iranian-Canadians” and “Punish the government, not the people of Iran”. The ex-pats are unhappy with the decision announced last month to close the visa section at Canada’s embassy in the Iranian capital and transfer services to the Canadian embassy in Ankara, Turkey. The move affects the processing of temporary resident applications. Permanent resident services were transferred to Ankara several months ago. Demonstrators said the decision, made without consulting the community, puts undue pressure on Canadian-Iranian families who look to Canada as a safe haven.
http://www.yorkregion.com/news/article/1362196–iranian-canadians-cry-foul-at-protest-over-visa-rules
