DAMASCUS, Syria, June 27 (UPI) -- The presence of a U.S. ambassador to Syria in that country is used as fodder by a brutal regime, a U.S. lawmaker said Monday while urging his recall.
Career diplomat and former Iraq point man Robert Ford was named in a recess appointment as the U.S. envoy to Damascus in December. President Barack Obama nominated Ford, the former deputy chief of mission in Iraq, in February 2010 to serve as U.S. envoy to Damascus. He becomes the first envoy to Damascus since Washington severed diplomatic ties with Syria in 2005.
U.S. Republican lawmakers had protested the February nomination in part because of concerns related to Syrian ally Hezbollah.
U.S. Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, R-Fla., chairwoman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said Monday that Ford should be recalled, noting it was "an ill-advised overture" in the first place.
"The regime has made it clear though its brutal actions and through the refusal of senior officials to meet with the ambassador that it is not interested in diplomacy," she said in a statement. "Any continued presence of a U.S. ambassador will either be used by the regime for propaganda purposes or just plain ignored."
The U.S. government argued diplomacy was the best way to encourage Syria to reform. Mark Toner, a spokesman for the U.S. State Department, said earlier this year it was important to have "an official U.S. voice in Damascus" in order to relay Washington's growing concerns to the Syrian regime.
Thousands have been killed at the hands of the regime of Syrian President Bashar Assad during a crackdown on an uprising against the government.
