Diplomatic Briefing
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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: Libyan PM lays wreath at London embassy siege site
Libya’s prime minister placed a wreath at the spot where a London policewoman was killed by gunfire from the Libyan Embassy in 1984. Abdurrahim el-Keib, who placed the wreath of white roses and carnations, has pledged that his country would work closely with the British government in a renewed investigation of the killing. A team of London detectives will be going to Libya to continue their investigation. Policewoman Yvonne Fletcher, 25, was policing a demonstration against Libya’s then-ruler Col. Moammar Gadhafi when an unidentified person sprayed the crowd with bullets, killing her and wounding 10 Libyan demonstrators. No one has ever been charged for the shootings. The incident poisoned relations between Britain and the North African state, leading to an 11-day siege of the embassy and a break in diplomatic relations between London and Tripoli. Fletcher’s killer has yet to be brought to justice, and the fall of Gadhafi’s government after last year’s uprising has reawakened interest in her case.
http://www.foxnews.com/world/2012/05/25/libyan-pm-lays-wreath-at-london-embassy-siege-site/
Newsline: US Embassy would embrace Chelsea as neighbor
The U.S. Embassy says it would embrace Chelsea as neighbors if the European champions build a stadium near the embassy’s planned new site in London. Britain’s Sun newspaper claimed Monday that U.S. diplomats complained about Chelsea’s bid to buy Battersea Power Station with a view to building a 60,000-seat stadium on the site. But the U.S. Embassy said in a statement to The Associated Press that “neither the U.S. Embassy in London nor the Department of State in Washington intervened to block the Chelsea Football Club’s bid to buy the Battersea Power Station. In fact, the Embassy has been generally supportive of initiatives to bring development and jobs to the Wandsworth and Battersea areas.” The U.S. is moving its embassy from Grosvenor Square, while Chelsea is exploring leaving Stamford Bridge.
http://washingtonexaminer.com/sports/2012/05/us-embassy-would-embrace-chelsea-neighbor/637656
Newsline: China summons UK envoy over Dalai Lama meeting
China’s Vice Foreign Minister Song Tao summoned the British ambassador in Beijing to protest British Prime Minister David Cameron’s meeting with the Dalai Lama, saying the meeting “seriously interfered” with China’s internal affairs. The exiled Tibetan spiritual leader, who is considered a separatist by Beijing, met with Cameron on Monday. The meeting was, however, not held at Cameron’s official Downing St residence in a gesture to Chinese sensibilities. Song summoned British ambassador Sebastian Wood and said that British leaders should fully consider the “serious consequences” of meeting the Dalai Lama, the Chinese Foreign Ministry said in a statement. China’s response echoed many previous statements about the Dalai Lama’s meetings with foreign political leaders, suggesting that China will confine its reaction to angry words. “British ministers believe that who they see is a matter for them,” said a British Foreign Office spokeswoman in London. “If they choose to see someone, it does not necessarily indicate they support that individual’s viewpoint.” The Dalai Lama was in London to receive the $1.7mn Templeton prize for his work affirming the spiritual dimension of life.
http://www.gulf-times.com/site/topics/article.asp?cu_no=2&item_no=506000&version=1&template_id=45&parent_id=25
Newsline: British envoy calls on UK expats to respect UAE dress code
The British Ambassador to the UAE has hailed the UAE as great place to live and raise children, and commended the country’s pro-active approach in clamping down online predators that could very well harm unwitting children. Dominic Jermey OBE spoke about some of the headline hitting issues that affect expats in this country. He urged expats and tourists to understand dress codes in the country, and advised parents to be more vigilant in protecting their kids from the possible harm emanating from the internet. In general, Jermey finds the UAE “to be a great fun and a great place to bring up children”. “It is also a fabulous place to be the British ambassador because the UK has this unique history and relationship with the UAE. And there are incredible contrasts from the traditional to the ultra-modern and that makes the UAE unique.
http://www.emirates247.com/news/emirates/british-envoy-calls-on-uk-expats-to-respect-uae-dress-code-2012-05-13-1.458488
Consular affairs: UK Embassy advises early visa application to go to London Olympics
The British Embassy in Manila said those who are planning to go to London for the 2012 Olympics in July this year must apply for visas as soon as possible. The embassy said “there is expected to be an increase in the number of applications in the lead up to the Olympics” which will be held in London from July 27 to August 12 this year. The embassy said the United Kingdom Border Agency has started accepting visa applications from those planning on travelling to the UK during the Olympic period either as a spectator or a visitor. “UK visa applications made in the Philippines are currently being processed well within published customer service standards – to make decisions on 90 percent of all non-settlement visa applications within three weeks and 95% of settlement visas within twelve weeks,” the embassy said.
http://www.gmanetwork.com/news/story/257563/pinoyabroad/going-to-london-olympics-apply-for-visa-now-uk-embassy-says
Newsline: British Embassy in Washington redesigns entrance
Big year for the British Embassy here in Washington: A new ambassador, lots of parties for the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee and the London Olympics — and a new showcase of British art. “Although the embassy is new for me, it’s not new for you,” said Susie Westmacott, wife of Ambassador Peter Westmacott. “It’s interesting for regular visitors to see something different.” Now guests at the grand residence on Massachusetts Avenue will find a mix of old and new British artists: There’s a Barbara Hepworth painting in the living room (next to a window looking out at her sculpture in the garden), William Hogarth in the dining room, Peter Blake (on loan from the Tate) and one of Damien Hirst’s spotted paintings in the hallway, and two coronation paintings. There is one piece in the ballroom by an American artist: Andy Warhol’s portrait of Queen Elizabeth II. But the biggest change is in the grand, two-story entrance: Huge portraits of King George III and Queen Charlotte are still hanging around, but the two-story hall is now covered in 118 prints — most from the late-18th century — to complement the Georgian-style architecture of the house. Think it’s easy to switch around a few paintings? Not when they belong to Britain’s Government Art Collection, which decides what art hangs where around the world. The Westmacotts had to get permission to move the embassy’s existing paintings and hang the new installation in the foyer. Sometimes the bureaucrats listen to ambassadorial preferences, sometimes they don’t.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/reliable-source/post/westmacottss-artful-change-at-british-embassy/2012/05/01/gIQAXSg0uT_blog.html
Newsline: UK embassy investigates arrest of Briton in Sudan
The British embassy was “urgently” investigating on Sunday the arrest in Sudan of one of its citizens, who was among four foreigners the Sudanese military said it captured in the tense Heglig oil region. “We are urgently investigating the arrest of a British national in Sudan,” an embassy spokesperson told AFP. “We immediately requested consular access”. Sudanese army spokesman, Sawarmi Khaled Saad, on Saturday identified the foreigners as a Briton, a Norwegian, a South African and a South Sudanese. “We captured them inside Sudan’s borders, in the Heglig area, and they were collecting war debris for investigation,” Saad said after the four were brought to the capital Khartoum. A colleague of one of the men said they were deminers working on the South Sudanese side of the border. The four were on a de-mining mission “and one of them was from the UN”, said Josephine Guerrero, a spokeswoman for the United Nations Mission in South Sudan. “We’re uncertain of the circumstances,” she added. In the most serious fighting since the South’s independence, Juba’s troops occupied Sudan’s main oil region of Heglig for 10 days, a move which coincided with Sudanese air strikes against the South. Sudan declared on April 20 that its troops had forced the Southern soldiers out of Heglig, but the South said it withdrew of its own accord. South Sudan broke away from Sudan in July last year after a peace deal ended one of Africa’s longest civil wars, which killed about two million people between 1983 and 2005.
http://www.emirates247.com/news/world/briton-among-four-arrested-in-sudan-embassy-2012-04-30-1.456365
Newsline: UK builder wins £650m US embassy job
The reclusive family-owned builder behind a host of London landmarks including the Dorchester Hotel and Arsenal’s Emirates Stadium is in line for the most cloak-and-dagger job of all — building the new US embassy. Sir Robert McAlpine is partnered with US contractor Harbert for the plum £650 million job at Nine Elms in Wandsworth, which is where the embassy will move in 2017 after leaving its Grosvenor Square home of almost 80 years. Harbert was appointed earlier this month since, under US State Department rules, a foreign firm is not allowed to carry out the works alone for security reasons. The embassy, designed by architects KieranTimberlake, will feature several landscaped defences including a moat around part of the building to protect against terrorist attacks.
http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/business/business-news/mcalpine-wins-650m-embassy-job-7684662.html
Newsline: British Foreign Secretary denies businessman killed in China was a secret agent
The Foreign Secretary has denied that Neil Heywood, the British businessman thought to have been murdered in China, was a British secret agent. William Hague has written to a Commons committee to say Mr Heywood “was not an employee of the British government in any capacity”. He added that the businessman, who died in November, was only an occasional contact of the British Embassy in Beijing. Mr Heywood lived in China for a decade and was for several years close to Bo Xilai, an influential Chinese politician. Bo was sacked from the Chinese Politburo earlier this month and his wife, Gu Kailai, is the leading suspect in the British businessman’s death.
http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/world-news/william-hague-denies-businessman-killed-in-china-was-a-secret-agent-16150778.html
