{"id":11789,"date":"2011-10-25T11:24:33","date_gmt":"2011-10-25T07:24:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/?p=11789"},"modified":"2011-10-30T08:33:49","modified_gmt":"2011-10-30T04:33:49","slug":"11789","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/middle-east-politics-analysis\/11789\/","title":{"rendered":"News Analysis: US Ambassador Scoots from Syria"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a class=\"highslide\" onclick=\"return vz.expand(this)\" href=\"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/10\/us-ambassador-robert-ford2.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-11790\" title=\"us-ambassador-robert-ford\" src=\"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/10\/us-ambassador-robert-ford2-e1319527419434.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"498\" height=\"325\" srcset=\"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/10\/us-ambassador-robert-ford2-e1319527419434.jpg 498w, https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/10\/us-ambassador-robert-ford2-e1319527419434-145x94.jpg 145w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 498px) 100vw, 498px\" \/><\/a><strong>What&#8217;s the Story?<\/strong> The US has pulled out its ambassador to Syria, Robert Ford, because of &#8216;concerns for his safety&#8217;.<\/p>\n<p><strong>He&#8217;s been there for a while?<\/strong> Hard to believe but he&#8217;s put in a good five years.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Bad news for Syrian fruit sellers then?<\/strong> Ah, you&#8217;re referring to the incident last month when Mr Ford was pelted with fruit by pro-Assad supporters on one of his impromptu visits to an opposition figure.<\/p>\n<p><strong>I presume the inevitable &#8216;diplomatic tit-for-tat&#8217; has taken place<\/strong>? Indeed, the Syrian authorities have &#8216;withdrawn their ambassador to the US for consultations&#8217;.<\/p>\n<p><strong>But there&#8217;s a chance that Mr Ford could well be patronising the charming coffee shops of Damascus again<\/strong>?\u00a0 Yes, according to Mark Toner, a spokesman for the US state department, Mr Ford&#8217;s return to Syria would depend on an &#8220;assessment of Syrian regime-led incitement and the security situation on the ground&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We hope that the Syrian regime will end its incitement campaign against Ambassador Ford.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><strong>He shouldn&#8217;t hold his breath then?<\/strong> It&#8217;ll probably be Starbucks in Washington DC for Mr Ford for a while.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>NEWS ANALYSIS: The US Ambassador to Syria has made quite a name for himself during his stint in Damascus.  But he&#8217;s also ruffled many governmental feathers.  <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":11790,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[83,483,60,482,317,893],"tags":[703,8966,3417,18330,18302,3023,8942],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11789"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11789"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11789\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11790"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11789"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11789"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11789"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}