Syria: Western envoys personae non gratae

Syria’s government declared on Tuesday that the ambassadors and staff of several Western countries as well as Turkey were personae non gratae. “Some states recently informed heads of our diplomatic missions and embassy staff that they are unwelcome,” the foreign ministry said in a statement, adding Syria was now designating the ambassadors of the United States, Britain, France and Turkey, among others, as personae non gratae. The ambassadors of Canada, Italy and Spain were also named in the statement, as well as various embassy staff members from Belgium, Bulgaria and Germany. “The Syrian Arab Republic still believes in the importance of dialogue based on principles of equality and mutual respect,” a ministry statement said. “We hope the countries that initiated these steps will adopt those principles, which would allow relations to return to normal again.” “We hope that those countries which initiated this step will adopt the same principles, allowing for relations to be normalised,” it added. Syria has been mired in bloody conflict for over a year as security forces seek to crush a revolt against president Bashar al-Assad’s rule. The United States, France, Britain, Canada, Germany, Italy, Spain, Australia, Bulgaria and Switzerland coordinated a move to expel Syrian diplomats in response to a massacre of 108 people in the city of Houla in late May. Nearly half those killed were children, one of the worst atrocities in the country since an uprising broke out in March 2011.