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Summary Syrian Ambassador to the United States Imad Mustapha was called in to the State Department.
Renewed violence in Syria raised the death toll to at least 19 on Friday, as Washington read out the riot act over a mob that tried to assault the US ambassador in Damascus a day earlier.In Washington, meanwhile, Syrian Ambassador Imad Mustapha was called in to the State Department and read the riot act about an attempted attack Thursday on US Ambassador Robert Ford, spokeswoman Victoria Nuland told reporters.A mob of nearly 100 Syrians chanting hostile slogans tried to storm an office in Damascus where Ford had arrived to meet opposition figure Hassan Abdelazim.Deputy State Department spokesman Mark Toner said the mob tried to attack Ford and other embassy staff while they visited the opposition leader, seriously damaging US vehicles and pelting the visitors with tomatoes.Ford spoke on his Facebook page Friday about the incident, saying the damage to the vehicles could not have been done by eggs and tomatoes.Protesters threw concrete blocks at the windows and hit the cars with iron bars, he said.One person jumped on the hood of the car, tried to kick in the windshield and then jumped on the roof. Another person held the roof railing and tried to break the cars side window.Nuland said Mustapha met Jeffrey Feltman, the assistant secretary of state for Near East affairs, hours after the incident.Mustapha was reminded that Ambassador Ford is the personal representative of the president (Barack Obama) and an attack on Ford is an attack on the United States, Nuland said.He was also asked for compensation for our damaged vehicles, she said, adding a very strong set of representations were made again about their Vienna convention responsibilities to protect US diplomats.The Assad regime had earlier accused Washington of inciting armed groups into violence against its army.The mob attack came as the UN Security Council remained divided over whether to threaten Assads regime with sanctions.Britain, France, Germany and Portugal insist that any resolution must include at least the threat of sanctions against Assad, but Russia opposes any mention of sanctions.The office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights in Geneva has said the death toll from the Syrian governments bloody crackdown has risen to more than 2,700 since March 15.
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