Obama gets sand kicked in his face again
Once again, an orchestrated demonstration of Syrians has kicked sand in the collective faces of the Obama administration. Supporters of President Bashar Assad on Thursday pelted [US Ambassador to Syria Robert] Ford - an outspoken critic of the Syrian regime’s brutal crackdown on the country’s six-month-old uprising - with eggs as he visited a prominent Syrian opposition figure in Damascus. He was trapped in the office for about three hours by the hostile pro-government protesters outside until Syrian security forces arrived to escort him out.The last President whose diplomatic corps was kicked around like this? You guessed it: Jimmy Carter's diplomats in Tehran in 1979.
“If you want to avoid rotten eggs, you should advise your country to stop its blatant interference in Syrian affairs and its feverish efforts to seek sanctions against Syria from the U.N. Security Council,” the [Al-Baath] newspaper said.
Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and the White House said the assault was part of a campaign to intimidate diplomats looking into the Assad’s government’s brutal repression of pro-reform demonstrators. The Obama administration summoned Syria’s ambassador in Washington to hear formal U.S. condemnation of the assault.
In comments posted on the embassy’s Facebook page, Ford said Thursday’s attack was not limited to eggs and tomatoes.
“Protesters threw concrete blocks at the windows and hit the cars with iron bars. One person jumped on the hood of the car, tried to kick in the windshield and then jumped on the roof,” Ford wrote.
“Is that peaceful? I’d call it intolerant if not worse.”
Al Baath newspaper said Ford should expect further “unpleasant treatment” as long as his country meddles in Syrian affairs.
“As long as the ambassador believes that diplomacy is the art of instigation against national regimes, he should anticipate unpleasant treatment,” it said.
Labels: Barack Hussein Obama, Damascus, Jimmy Carter, Robert Ford, Syrian regime change, Tehran, US embassy in Damascus
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 3:32 PM
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