Syria bars UK diplomats as it sends in the gunships ‘Your ambassadors are not welcome’ Syria tells the West

SYRIA’S government has barred 17 Western diplomats as president Bashar al Assad defied international pressure to halt his violent campaign to crush the uprising against his rule.

Ambassadors from Britain, the United States, Canada, Turkey and several other European countries were made unwelcome in retaliation for the expulsion of Syrian envoys from Western embassies last week following the massacre of more than 100 civilians by suspected Assad loyalists.

More violence erupted yesterday when Syrian helicopter gunships pounded rebels in the coastal Latakia province.

The heavy clashes took place on the second day of combat since the rebels declared they would no longer abide by an internationally brokered ceasefire, saying that the government had continued the repression in defiance of United Nations peace observers.

Rebel fighters said eight of their comrades were killed, while the pro-opposition Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said 15 to 20 soldiers were killed. Activists also reported heavy fire by government forces on the city of Homs.

The latest developments emphasised the precarious state of a peace plan brokered by Nobel Peace laureate Kofi Annan, who has shuttled between Damascus and other capitals on behalf of the UN and Arab League.

Foreign governments are still clinging to the plan as the only option for finding a political solution and preventing a wider conflict. But with the failure of the ceasefire and Mr Assad’s intransigence, it is all but in tatters.

Russia and China, Mr Assad’s principle defenders on the diplomatic front, said on Tuesday that Mr Annan’s efforts should not be abandoned.

Russian president Vladimir Putin and his Chinese counterpart Hu Jintao, meeting in Beijing, urged international support for the plan, despite calls from Arab and Western states for a tougher response to the violence.

Despite more bloodshed, Syria has agreed to allow the UN and international agencies to expand humanitarian operations in the country, where at least one million people need urgent assistance after 15 months of conflict, the UN said yesterday.

The UN is to open field offices in four violence-plagued provinces – Deraa, Deir al-Zor, Homs and Idlib – and Syrian officials have pledged to accelerate the granting of visas for aid workers and customs clearance for relief goods.

At least 500,000 Syrians are internally displaced in their country and many have lost their homes, according to the Syrian Red Crescent. More than 78,000 Syrians have fled to Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon and Turkey, the UN refugee agency has said.

The UN hosted the one-day Syrian Humanitarian Forum, the third in a series, in Damascus to try to expand access to hungry, sick or wounded civilians in the country reeling from an uprising against the Assad regime.