SaoPaulo/brussels: Ecuadoran President Rafael Correa, in an interview published here yesterday, said his country would consider granting asylum to his embattled Syrian counterpart Bashar Al Assad.
“Any person that requests asylum in Ecuador, obviously we are going to consider as a human being whose basic rights we have to respect,” he told the daily Folha de Sao Paulo.
He confirmed that Syrian Deputy Foreign Minister Fayssal Mekdad visited Quito two weeks ago but denied Israeli press reports that a possible asylum for Assad and his family was discussed during the visit.
“These conversations did not take place,” he said in the interview conducted in Brasilia on Friday ahead of the summit of the Mercosur regional trade bloc.
Correa said Mekdad came to Quito to thank Ecuador for its “objective stance” on the Syrian civil war.
“Ecuador will never favour violence...Can we believe all those news stories on violence, the dictator? Let’s remember what was said about Iraq,” he added.
Last week, Ecuadoran Foreign Minister Ricardo Patino denied that Assad had been offered asylum.
“Totally denied,” Patino said on his Twitter account. “No Syrian citizen has requested asylum in Ecuador, much less its current president.”
Assad has so far rebuffed international pressure to step down, but fighting has intensified around Damascus amid a brutal civil war that human rights monitors estimate has claimed at least 42,000 lives.
Meanwhile, EU foreign ministers, meeting the leader of the Syrian opposition yesterday, moved towards full recognition of a new coalition ahead of a diplomatic gathering aimed at bolstering aid for rebels fighting President Bashar Al Assad.
In part because of concerns about the presence of radical Islamists among the rebels, the European Union did not offer full recognition to the Syrian National Coalition (SNC), as Britain and France have. The bloc also has called on the grouping to become more inclusive.
But the EU offered to “continue engaging with and to support the Coalition” as it worked towards creating “a credible alternative to the current regime” of President Bashar Al Assad.
“It is the right time to upgrade the SNC today,” German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle told reporters in Brussels, where foreign ministers had gathered.
Germany has expelled four Syrian embassy staff as part of a drive to reduce ties with President Bashar Al Assad, Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle said yesterday. Berlin has told Syria’s acting envoy that the four staff have until Thursday to leave Germany.
“With the expulsion of the four embassy employees announced today we are sending a clear message that we are reducing relations with the Assad regime to an absolute minimum,” Westerwelle said in a statement.
“We are counting on the (opposition) National Coalition strengthening further and building as soon as possible functioning institutions for a political transition,” he added.
France and Britain last month recognised the National Coalition as the sole legitimate representative of the Syrian people, though some EU countries including Germany have trodden more cautiously. Western governments are concerned about the presence of hardline Islamists in the opposition ranks.
Germany expelled the Syrian ambassador in May after a massacre widely blamed on forces loyal to Assad.
Last week, the German parliament approved the sending of Patriot missiles to Nato ally Turkey to defend it against possible Syrian missile attacks.
Syria’s civil war grew out of peaceful, Arab Spring-inspired mass protests against Assad in March last year. Agencies
