Syria, Morocco in Tit-for-Tat Expulsion of Envoys
Syria declared Morocco's ambassador persona non grata on Monday, the foreign ministry said, in a tit-for-tat move hours after Rabat expelled Damascus's envoy to the North African country.
"Syria has just considered the accredited Moroccan ambassador to Syria persona non grata," ministry spokesman Jihad Makdissi said via Twitter, after Morocco demanded that Syrian ambassador Nabih Ismail depart the country.
In its statement announcing Ismail's expulsion, Rabat cited violence in Syria as the trigger for its decision.
"The Moroccan authorities have been following with great concern the violence that Syria's people are suffering," it said, putting the death toll in Syria at 20,000.
Rights activists say more than 17,000 people have been killed in Syria since the uprising broke out in March 2011 against the autocratic regime of President Bashar Assad.
On June 6, participants at a Paris meeting of the so-called Friends of Syria which opposes the Assad regime decided to throw its support behind the opposition and hold their next gathering in Morocco.
Source: Agence France Presse
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