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发帖数: 26222 | 1 The United States and France sent their ambassadors back to Syria to
champion protesters, demanding that the regime protect the envoys who had
been pulled out due to safety fears.
US Ambassador Robert Ford and French Ambassador Eric Chevallier had faced
harassment and threats as they shone a light on President Bashar al-Assad's
nine-month crackdown, in which more than 4,000 people are said to have died.
"We believe his presence in the country is among the most effective ways to
send the message that the United States stands with the people of Syria," US
State Department spokesman Mark Toner said as the two envoys flew back in.
Ford will seek to provide "reliable reporting on the situation on the ground
" and engage "with the full spectrum of Syrian society on how to end the
bloodshed and achieve a peaceful political transition," Toner said.
White House spokesman Jay Carney demanded that Syria uphold international
obligations to protect foreign diplomats and allow US officers "to conduct
their work free of intimidation or obstacles."
In Paris, deputy foreign ministry spokesman Romain Nadal said that the
concerns that led to Chevallier's recall have not gone away but that "his
work on the ground in Syria is important."
"France is more than ever at the side of the Syrian people," Nadal told AFP.
The US and French ambassadors had both traveled in Syria to document
protests and show their support, amid official attempts to prevent
international media and observers from witnessing the crackdown firsthand.
The United States announced on October 24 that Ford had been brought back to
Washington because of "credible threats." Assad supporters had pelted Ford
and the embassy staff with tomatoes and damaged US vehicles as they visited
an opposition leader in Damascus.
The French ambassador was recalled on November 16 after mobs loyal to Assad
attacked France's honorary consulate in the northern city of Latakia and the
detached chancery in Aleppo.
Toner said the United States "felt there was a sense of urgency" in sending
Ford back to Damascus but said that Washington would "keep a close eye" on
what it viewed as threats to him, including articles in the state-run press.
In further pressure on Syria, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on
Tuesday held talks in Geneva with seven opponents of Assad. She called for
the protection of women and minorities, a key concern for a future without
Assad, as he comes from the minority Alawite sect.
"The Syrian opposition as represented here recognizes that Syria's
minorities have legitimate questions and concerns about their future,"
Clinton said in talks with the dissident Syrian National Council, which was
formed in October.
Minorities "need to be assured that Syria will be better off under a regime
of tolerance and freedom that provides opportunity and respect and dignity
on the basis of the consent rather than on the whims of a dictator," Clinton
said.
Syria has come under intense international pressure as Assad tries to crush
the worst threat to his family's four-decade rule over the country, with the
United States, European Union, Arab League and Turkey all imposing
sanctions.
The Arab League has threatened to slap new sanctions on Damascus unless it
lets in monitors. In a letter late Sunday, Assad's regime said it will allow
monitors but only if conditions are met.
Syria accuses "armed terrorist groups" of fueling the unrest, which comes
amid a wave of street protests across the Arab world this year that have
toppled authoritarian regimes in Egypt, Libya and Tunisia.
President Barack Obama appointed Ford, a veteran diplomat in the Arab world,
as the first US ambassador to Syria in five years as part of his
administration's effort to engage US adversaries.
Obama's Republican opponents initially denounced the move, saying it sent
the wrong signal to Assad, but have lent support to Ford as his mission
turns dangerous.
Senator John Kerry, an Obama ally who heads the Senate Foreign Relations
Committee, called Ford "guts and grit personified."
"He is an ambassador who has helped expose the crimes of the Assad regime
and he's demonstrated enormous courage," Kerry said. |
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