Diplomatic Briefing
Your exclusive news aggregator handpicked daily!Archive for Syria
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 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: Romania has no plans to close Damascus embassy
Romania has no plans to withdraw its embassy from Damascus, given it allows keeping in touch with the Romanian citizens in Syria and plays an important role in solving their problems, Foreign Affairs Minister Andrei Marga said. According to Marga, Romania from all the European Union states probably has the largest community of citizens in Syria. ‘I reiterated the importance of implementing the plan worked out by Kofi Annan and, in relation to it, the importance of immediately stopping any form of violence. Romania is participating five unarmed military observers to the U.N. mission in Syria’, Marga explained. Stress was also laid on the importance of ensuring the humanitarian aid transport to the areas where the Syrian civil population mostly needs, by observing the provisions of the Kofi Annan plan by the Syrian authorities, Agerpres reports.
http://actmedia.eu/daily/formin-romania-has-no-plans-to-withdraw-damascus-embassy/39972
Newsline: U.S. embassy calls Syria bombings “unacceptable”
The U.S. embassy in Beirut called a double bombing that killed 55 people in Syria on Thursday “reprehensible and unacceptable” but said it would not change U.S. demands that the Syrian government implement a UN-backed peace plan. The bombings were the deadliest attacks in the Syrian capital, Damascus, since an uprising against President Bashar al-Assad began 14 months ago. “The United States condemns in the strongest terms the attacks that took place today in Damascus,” the U.S. embassy said in statements posted on Twitter. “The indiscriminate targeting and killing of civilians is reprehensible and unacceptable in any context,” it said. The U.S. embassy in Damascus was closed earlier this year when tensions between the two countries rose as Washington voiced support for the revolt against Assad’s rule.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/sns-rt-us-syria-bombsbre8490sn-20120510,0,4555262.story
Newsline: Syrian opposition plans to set up embassy in Libya
The Syrian National Council (SNC) is making preparations to send representation to the Libyan capital of Tripoli in several weeks, a news report said on Tuesday. Libya was one of the first countries to recognize the SNC as the legitimate representative of the Syrian people after the meeting of the “Friends of Syria” in İstanbul at the beginning of April. The Libyan National Transitional Council promised in March deliver $100 million in aid to the SNC and stated that the Syrian opposition could open up representative offices in Libya. SNC’s Libya representative Enes al-Khalid said the Syrian Embassy in Libya was currently closed and that an inauguration ceremony for the office for the new mission would be held in a few weeks. In February, Syrian opposition members entered the Syrian Embassy in Tripoli and hoisted their own flag. Libya then asked the Syrian ambassador to leave the country, and Syrian diplomats left Tripoli following protests against the Syrian regime.
http://www.todayszaman.com/news-277711-syrian-opposition-plans-to-send-representation-to-libya.html
Newsline: Syria is not ready for elections says former US ambassador
Richard Murphy, former US ambassador to Syria believes the country is not ready to conduct free elections. This comes as the UN Security Council voted on a resolution authorising the deployment of monitors to Syria to oversee a ceasefire.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-17710443
Newsline: Syrian embassy in Lebanon accused of smuggling weapons
Lebanese security forces apprehended two days ago a Lebanese military vehicle put at the disposal of the Syrian embassy transporting unlicensed weapons toward Syria, Al-Hayat newspaper reported on Friday. The daily also said that the vehicle had the license plate of a Syrian embassy vehicle and that an officer previously accused of abducting Syrian dissidents was inside. Syrian activists have claimed that the Syrian Embassy in Lebanon is complicit in the mysterious disappearances of a number of Syrians in Lebanon.
http://www.nowlebanon.com/NewsArticleDetails.aspx?ID=384148
Newsline: Iran Embassy in Syria Denies Abduction Reports
Several Iranian nationals have been abducted following the release of five Iranians in Syria, Tabnak news website reported on 3 April quoting websites affiliated to Syrian rebels. According to Tabnak’s Arabic service, the Syrian protestors have published a clip claiming that they have captured several Iranian nationals affiliated to the Islamic Republic Guard Corps (IRGC), who travelled to Syria to provide support to al-Asad’s government. Information published by the Syrian protesters announced that the number of the abductees was 11. This information was published by Arab sources several days after five Iranian pilgrims, who had been abducted by Syrian protesters several months ago, were handed over to Iran’s embassy in Turkey. However, another report by tabnak on the same day, rejected the above report quoting the public relations department of Iran’s embassy in Syria, describing it as “baseless.” An unnamed official from the public relations department of Iran’s embassy in Syria said: “Fortunately, we were able to release 16 of our beloved citizens despite the existing security problems and difficulties.” This official added: “At present, only 12 Iranian nationals including seven technicians and six pilgrims are in the custody of [Syrian] armed groups [protestors], and we still continue our efforts to secure their release.”
http://www.hispanicbusiness.com/2012/4/3/iran_embassy_in_syria_denies_reports.htm
Newsline: Allegations of spying by Syrian diplomats in EU cause alarm
The Belgian foreign ministry is to investigate allegations that Syrian intelligence services are terrorising Syrian opposition expats in the EU capital. Foreign minister Didier Reynders told Belgian Liberal MEP Louis Michel on Friday (30 March) that he will personally look into claims that Syrian diplomats in Brussels have threatened people who take part in anti-regime rallies that their families in Syria will be harmed unless they stop. The allegations center around Wael Saker – a diplomatic “attache” at the Syrian embassy. Saker is said to be a senior officer in the Syrian “mukhabarat” (intelligence services) and that he operates a network of Syrian and Lebanese-origin “shabiha” (agents/militia) who infiltrate anti-regime groups to collect names, make threatening phonecalls and go to some anti-regime rallies to try to provoke violence. The Syrian embassy said in a written statement: “Those old accusations are unfounded. Some people are trying to market them in order to harm the national role of Syrian embassies … but we challenge anyone to come even with one proof.” On the shabiha allegation, it said: “Syrian expatriates in their vast majority have expressed their fabulous feelings and stands [sic] in solidarity with their country in these difficult circumstances.” It added there is “no institutional link with the embassy” and pro-regime NGOs in Belgium, such as the Association of Syrian Expatriates.
http://euobserver.com/22/115775
