Rudd should consider cutting Syria ties

9 Feb 2012, 2:44 pm   -   Source: AAP
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Greens leader Bob Brown says severing diplomatic ties with Syria is an action that Foreign Minister Kevin Rudd should consider.

The federal government should consider closing Syria's embassy in Canberra, Australian Greens leader Bob Brown says.

Foreign Minister Kevin Rudd on Wednesday summoned Syria's acting ambassador to his office for a dressing-down about his government's increasingly bloody crackdown on an 11-month old anti-government uprising.

Mr Rudd told Jawdat Ali that his government had lost its legitimacy and President Bashar al-Assad should step down.

But Mr Rudd has stopped short of severing diplomatic ties with Syria, mainly because more than 100 Australia citizens are believed to still be in the country and he wants to keep channels open.

But Senator Brown thinks Mr Rudd should reconsider.

"The next question to consider is whether the embassy here in Canberra shouldn't be closed," he told reporters on Thursday.

"They don't represent the Syrian people and they don't represent decency and democracy, and that's the next question for our foreign minister to have to consider."

Senator Brown said Russia and China's decision to veto a UN Security Council resolution aimed at stemming the bloodshed was "reprehensible".

"I think the whole world has to act more strongly and I'm backing what the foreign minister has done on Syria."

Mr Rudd this week announced fresh sanctions against figures connected to Mr Assad's regime.

An estimated 5500 Syrians have been killed since the unrest began in March last year.

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