Damascus (AsiaNews) - US, France, the United Kingdom, Germany, Italy, Spain, Canada and Australia have announced the expulsion of Syrian diplomats. They have 48 hours to leave the host countries. The decision is a response to the massacre of Houla, which killed 108 people. Among those expelled is Khaddour Hasan, the Ambassador of the Syrian Republic in Rome.
Sources told AsiaNews that "Western countries want to put Assad's back to the wall. For them, the army is the culprit of the massacre, even though the investigations are still ongoing". According to sources, the expulsion of the ambassadors is to delegitimize the regime and open a new scenario in the handling of the Syrian crisis, one that would set aside definitively Kofi Annan's peace plan, now judged to have failed.
Today, the UN has released new details about the massacre that killed 108 people, including 49 children. According to surveys, most of the victims were executed.
