Governments around the world took action today, expelling Syrian ambassadors and diplomats after the massacre that claimed the lives of 49 children and 34 women in Houla.
STORY: Civil War Threatens Syria After 90 Killed In Massacre
According to the Associated Press, this latest action comes off the heals of Syrian President Bashar Assad’s regime gruesome massacre that the United Nations said involved close-range shootings of scores of children and parents in their homes.
The United States, Britain, Canada, Australia, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Bulgaria and the Netherlands took action Tuesday against Syrian diplomats.
Britain’s foreign secretary said the countries involved in Tuesday’s expulsions would also push for tougher sanctions against Syria.
The moves came after the killings Friday in Houla, a collection of farming villages in Syria’s Homs province – one of the deadliest single events in a 15-month-old uprising against Assad that has killed thousands.
Australian Foreign Minister Bob Carr said in Canberra:
“This is the most effective way we’ve got of sending a message of revulsion of what has happened in Syria.”
In a statement, he called the Houla killings a “hideous and brutal crime” and said Australia would not engage with the Syrian government unless it abides by a U.N. cease-fire plan.
In Damascus, international envoy Kofi Annan met with Assad on Tuesday and said his peace plan cannot work without “bold steps” to stop the violence, said Annan’s spokesman, Ahmad Fawzi.
Hollande said Tuesday that Paris will host a meeting in early July of the so-called Friends of Syria seeking a diplomatic solution to the conflict.
The U.N. estimates that at least 9,000 people have been killed since the uprising began in March 2011.
SOURCE: AP
