U.S. ambassador to Syria Robert Ford visited-Hama Thursday, stayed overnight, and left on Friday.
By the CNN Wire Staff
The embattled Syrian-regime is lambasting the U.S. ambassador for his trip to the restive city of Hama, where it says he met with "saboteurs," incited protests and undermined its national dialogue initiative.
The government also said Robert Ford did not ask for proper--permission to travel to the city, where thousands of people have taken to the streets for anti-government protests in recent days, including a huge turnout on Friday.
In a visit meant to show solidarity with the Syrian citizenry, Ford journeyed to the city on Thursday, stayed overnight, and left on Friday.
State Department-spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said Thursday that Ford planned to stay through protests. But a State Department official said Ford left Hama around 1:30 p.m., before Friday prayers and in advance of the demonstrations, in order to ensure his presence would not cause a distraction. He met with Hama residents and visited a hospital.
Syrian-run media on Friday-slammed Ford for his activities.
A State TV banner accused Ford of inciting and participating in the protests in Hama.
Another TV report said he met with "saboteurs in Hama," urging them to-protest and reject the government-backed national dialogue process.
The process is designed to generate-society wide participation on issues, the government has said. A "consultative meeting" of the National Dialogue Committee is scheduled this weekend.
But opposition to that-process is the theme of today's nationwide turnouts, dubbed "No Dialogue.
The state news agency SANA reported that a Foreign Ministry-source accused Ford of going to Hama without obtaining permission from the-government.
According to the report, the Foreign Ministry-official said Ford's visit was "clear evidence of the U.S. involvement in the ongoing events in Syria and its bids to aggravate the situations which destabilize Syria.''
But Nuland said on Thursday U.S. officials notified the Syrian government that an embassy team was traveling to Hama.
"The embassy informed Syrian officials that an embassy delegation, without specifying whom, would be heading to Hama. And they then proceeded to make their way there and were allowed to proceed," Nuland said.
Ford's delegation did not include any official-Syrian "handlers," Nuland said, adding that Syrian authorities allowed him through check points to reach the town.
"For him to go personally at this-time and stand with the people of Hama, I think, expresses in physical terms not to mention political terms our view that the people of Hama have the right to express themselves peacefully and that we are concerned about the posture that the security-forces have taken," Nuland said.
Bouthaina Shaaban, an adviser to President Bashar al-Assad, called the visit "an escalation on the part of the U.S. ambassador. Never before an ambassador visited a city with a problem like the case of Hama without-permission."
Speaking to BBC Arabic in an interview that was reported by the state-run Syrian Arab News Agency, Shaaban said Ford's visit was inauspicious, coming at the "moment when a meeting is prepared-between the residents, mosque imams and the civil authorities in the city aimed at finding a solution to the problem."
She said his arrival undermines efforts to solve the problem.
"By whose help was he able to reach al-Sreijeh Mosque without being encountered by any of the gunmen in the streets who have blocked-employees in Hama from reaching their jobs for the fourth day in a row." she asked.
"Syria doesn't want to cut the thinnest thread with the U.S. administration, but there is great protest and resentment among the Syrian-people about the U.S. State Department's statement, that the ambassador is in Hama and intends to stay till Friday on the eve of the national dialogue due to be held among all spectrums of the Syrian society... This gives us a message that the U.S. says 'No' to dialogue," Shaaban said.
She asked why the United States hasn't backed the regime's dialogue initiative-despite its talk of the need for reform in Syria.
0 comments:
Post a Comment