(Reuters) - U.S.
ally Jordan said on Monday it was expelling Syria's ambassador for
accusing the kingdom of backing Syrian rebels, prompting Damascus to
retaliate by barring Jordan's top diplomat. A Jordanian foreign ministry
statement gave Syrian Ambassador Bahjat Suleiman, a former general and
intelligence chief, 24 hours to leave. It said he had violated
diplomatic protocol by posting repeated comments on social media that
criticized Jordan and its Gulf allies. "Mr
Suleiman used the territory of the kingdom as a platform to level
unfounded accusations in more than one statement and post...this was
despite repeated warnings for a long while," the statement on state news
agency Petra said. In a tit-for-tat move, neighboring Syria
declared Jordan's charge d'affaires in Damascus persona non grata in
response for what it said was an unjustified move to expel its
ambassador, Syrian state television said. Jordanian officials said the charge d'affaires was not currently in Syria. Jordan
has avoided publicly supporting Syrian rebels fighting to overthrow
Assad, calling instead for a political solution to a war that has cost
over 100,000 lives. The Western-backed kingdom has harbored more than one million refugees from neighboring Syria's civil war. Suleiman
has accused Jordan in his posts of hosting Islamist radicals sent to
fight President Bashar al-Assad's forces and of providing a haven for
hundreds of Syrian army defectors training them with Saudi help to go
back and join rebels. "These
insults against Jordan and its Arab allies are a flagrant breach of
diplomatic norms and treaties," foreign ministry spokeswoman Sabah al
Rafia told state media. Suleiman allowed his followers on Facebook
to leave comments strongly critical of Saudi Arabia and other Gulf
states which back the Syrian opposition, mocking their ruling families
and ridiculing Jordanian officials who attacked Assad. ELECTION Some
diplomats and officials privately say the timing of Suleiman's
expulsion was tied to the embassy's announcement it will stage voting
for Syrians living in Jordan in a presidential election on June 3 that
looks all but certain to give President Bashar al-Assad a third
seven-year term. Earlier this
month, Foreign Minister Nasser Joudeh warned that allowing the Syrian
embassy to organize voting by a deeply divided Syrian community could
bring security problems in the country. Despite
the carnage and the loss of swathes of territory in the north and east
to insurgents, Syrian authorities say holding the elections would be a
major milestone towards ending the conflict and fight against "Islamist
terror". Opponents have dismissed the vote as a farce. Joudeh had threatened the envoy last June with expulsion after Facebook posts that said Syria would target the kingdom when the U.S. deployed two Patriot missile batteries. Jordan
has long denied hosting U.S.-led training of Syrian rebels or supplying
military aid to Assad's opponents and security forces have stepped up
in recent months the arrest of radicals seeking to cross the border to
fight alongside Islamist groups fighting Assad's forces. Jordan's
Western-aligned monarchy is torn by conflicting interests over Syria.
It has tried to steer a middle course between that of Gulf Arab allies
who want Assad ousted at almost any cost and its own concerns - echoed
by Washington - that a radical Islamist victory in Syria would install a
worse threat.
Jordan, Syria bar envoys in tit-for-tat diplomatic row

Reuters
Comments About This Article
Please fill the fields below.