Australia, Britain, France, and Germany announced the expulsion of the Syrian ambassadors from their countries on Tuesday in protest at last weekend's massacre in the Syrian town of Houla for which they blame President Bashar Assad's forces.
French President Francois Hollande said on Tuesday Ambassador Lamia Shakkour would be notified "today or tomorrow" that she must leave. The expulsion aims to increase France’s diplomatic pressure on Damascus in the face of mounting violence by government forces against civilians and opposition members, he added.
Britain's foreign ministry said London is expelling three diplomats, among them Charge d'Affaires Ghassan Dalla —Syria’s top ranking diplomat in Britain, over the deaths in Houla.
Germany will also expel the Syrian ambassador in protest, DPA news agency reported.
British Foreign Secretary William Hague said earlier that Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Italy Spain, and the United States were all taking action to expel Syrian diplomatic staff from their countries.
"This is the most effective way we've got of sending a message of revulsion of what has happened in Syria,” Australian Foreign Minister Bob Carr was quoted as saying by The Independent.
The killings on Friday in Houla in Homs province were one of the deadliest single events in the 15-month-old uprising against President Assad's rule. The UN said 49 children and 34 women were among the 108 people killed.
Russian Deputy UN Ambassador Alexander Pankin told journalists after the massacre the killings may have been a “provocation” carried out by rebel forces ahead of a visit by UN peace envoy Kofi Annan to Syria.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov claimed on Tuesday “certain countries” were attempting to use the deaths in Houla as a “pretext” for the start of a military operation against Assad’s forces, which have been armed in part by Russia.
Lavrov also accused the head of the foreign-based opposition Syrian National Council of attempting to “incite a civil war” in the Middle East country.
“We were shocked by the recent public statement by Syrian National Council head Burhan Galioun, who urged Syrian opposition forces to continue the fight for liberation until the UN Security Council gives the green light to military intervention,” Lavrov said.
Moscow has consistently accused the West of using the current crisis to seek regime change in Damascus and the Kremlin has vetoed UN resolutions against Syria over what it says is a pro-rebel bias. Russia has continued to arm Syria throughout the crisis, but maintains its deliveries have been in total compliance with international law.
The majority of the over 100 people killed at the weekend in Houla were executed, a spokesman for the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights said on Tuesday, media reports said.
Spokesman Rupert Colville told journalists in Geneva that UN monitors had found that fewer than 20 of the 108 people who died were killed by artillery fire.
At least 108 people, a third of them children, were killed in the attack, which the United Nations called an "outrageous show of force" by the Syrian authorities.
Russia has said there is "no doubt" government forces used tanks and shelling, but refused to rule out the involvement of rebels.
“Most of the rest of the victims were summarily executed in two separate incidents,” Colville said. “At this point it looks like entire families were shot in their houses."
Colville also said eyewitnesses blamed the massacre on pro-government militia fighters known as Shabiha.
Syrian authorities on Monday sent a letter to the UN Security Council, in which they denied any involvement in the tragedy, and blamed militants from radical Islamist groups for the attack on the village of Houla.
Over 10,000 people have been killed in clashes between the government and opposition forces in Syria since the uprising against Assad began in March 2011, according to UN estimates.
