Tunisia expels Syrian ambassador

PanARMENIAN.Net - The Tunisian Office of the President declared in a statement released Saturday, Feb 4, its initiation of the process to expel the Syrian ambassador to Tunisia and to withdraw recognition of the ruling regime in Damascus.

The statement “condemns all crimes committed by the Syrian regime against its people and expresses Tunisia’s solidarity with the Syrian people.”

“Tunisia expresses its concern and sadness for the suffering of the Syrian people from the bloody massacres committed by the ruling regime in Damascus, which culminated in a massacre in Homs last night – on the eve of Prophet Mohammad’s birth -resulting in more than two hundred dead and several hundred injured.”

Tunisian Foreign Affairs Minister, Rafik Abdelsalaam, confirmed the statement – released over the official Facebook page of the Tunisian Presidency – in an interview with Al Jazeera earlier today. Abdelsalaam declared the government’s intention to remove its diplomats from Syria in conjunction with the expulsion of the Syrian ambassador from Tunisia, according to Tunisia-Live.

Meanwhile, Reuters reports that the staff at the Syrian embassy in Tunisia's capital lowered the national flag over the building hours after the Tunisian president said he was expelling the ambassador and preparing to sever relations with Damascus.

When the flag was lowered, a crowd of nearly 200 people, who were protesting nearby against the Syrian government's crackdown on its opponents, cheered and shouted: "The people want liberty for Syria!"