Hague: British Embassy in Damascus ‘Suspended’
Foreign Secretary William Hague has withdrawn all diplomatic staff from the British Embassy in Damascus in Syria and suspended its services.
Mr Hague said the deteriorating security situation put staff in danger.
The move comes as the UN rights council condemned “systematic violations” against civilians by the Syrian regime.
Prime Minister David Cameron said the UK is taking steps to build a legal case against President Bashar al-Assad for violently supressing protests.
He said Britain is making sure that experts are available on the Turkish border and elsewhere to collect the evidence.
“There will be film evidence, there will be testimony, there will be individuals, there may well be information from the cameraman who recently escaped from Homs,” he said.
The British prime minister said the aim was to “build a picture that can then make a case that these are crimes against humanity” and that the Syrian president “must be held to account”.
‘Crisis appeal’
“I wish we could do more but we have to be realistic about what we can achieve. But holding them to account, gathering the evidence, using that case to build a case in international law that he can never hide from - that we can do,” said Mr Cameron.
It comes after he said the international community was exerting maximum pressure on the regime.
Mr Cameron has said Britain must be realistic about its capacity to intervene directly, insisting the situation was different to Libya.
Meanwhile, the British Red Cross has launched a “crisis appeal”, saying Syria urgently needs aid.