State Department Shuts Down Embassy in Syria

The U.S. Department of State issued a statement last week announcing its suspension of all embassy operations in Damascus, Syria.  As of February 6, U.S. Ambassador to Syria Robert Ford and all American personnel are evacuated from the country.  

In the past week, other nations including France, Italy, and the six Gulf Arab states have also recalled their ambassadors.  The Swiss government announced this week its plans to close its embassy in the coming days.  

The State Department cited recent surges in violence as the most immediate reason for its decision to pull its embassy workers.  Two bombings in Damascus on December 23 and January 6 were highlighted as examples of costly security breaches which the Syrian government failed to prevent.  Both attacks, which occurred near government offices in the center of the city, reportedly killed 70 people and injured at least 229.  The Syrian government continues to blame Islamist terrorist organization Al-Qaida for the bombings.

The statement clarified that Ambassador Ford will remain the United States Ambassador to Syria and continue to engage with the Syrian people as head of the Syria team in Washington. The Ambassador and other officials will maintain contact with the Syrian opposition and continue to support a political transition.

U.S. leadership maintains that the uncontrolled violence has escalated under the controversial regime of President Bashar al-Assad, who has held power since his unopposed election in 2000. In March of last year, Syrians initiated the largest national protest in decades, calling for political reform and the reinstatement of civil rights.  Since March, leadership around the world has expressed abhorrence at repeated instances of the regime's violent repression of such peaceful demonstrations.  President Obama released a statement earlier this month to this end: "The suffering citizens of Syria must know: we are with you, and the Assad regime must come to an end."

Early this month, Russia and China vetoed a UN Security Council resolution which called for current Syrian president Bashar al-Assad to resign in a vote that countered all 13 other council members.  U.S. Ambassador to the UN Susan Rice expressed "disgust" at the two countries' veto, accusing them of supporting "a craven tyrant" and selling out the Syrian people. "For months this council has been held hostage by a couple of members," said Rice. "These members stand behind empty arguments and individual interests while delaying and seeking to strip bare any text that would pressure Assad to change his actions. Any further bloodshed that flows will be on their hands," she added.

The UN General Assembly will vote on an Arab-sponsored resolution strongly condemning human rights violations by Assad's regime and supporting an Arab League plan aimed at ending the 11-month conflict.  Though non-binding, the resolution is expected to place greater international pressure on the government of Syria by sending a more unified message of world opinion.

Rights groups report that more than 6000 people, mostly civilians, have been killed since Syrian forces began to crack down on the democracy protests begun almost a year ago.