Canada closes embassy in Syria

Canada has closed its embassy in Syria because of the continuing violence there, Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird announced Monday.

And in an interview with Evan Solomon on CBC's Power & Politics, Baird pointed to new reasons why Canada isn't sending the military into Syria, as U.S. Senator John McCain urged his government to do on Monday by launching air strikes to defend civilians against the regime of President Bashar al-Assad.

Pointing to the "deteriorating situation" in Syria, Baird said there areno diplomatic staff left at themission in Damascus.

"International consensus is that this regime has lost all legitimacy and the only course of action is for Assad to leave and leave now," Baird saidat a press conference inOttawa.

NDP foreign affairs critic Hlne Laverdire, a former diplomat, said the government has legitimate concerns for the safety of Canadian personnel in Damascus.

"We have been asking the government for weeks now to recall the [Canadian] ambassador. We still think it would have been a good move. It would have sent a statement to the Assad regime to recall the ambassador and could have been done weeks ago while the embassy could have still been working on the ground," she said.

The U.S. closed its embassy on Feb. 6;Britain recalled its ambassador the same day.

Libya, Syria 'different'

Inthe interview with Solomon, Baird offered more reasons for why Canada isn't sending its military into Syria the way it did in Libya.

He and other ministers have said repeatedly that they don't have a UN Security Council-sanctioned mission and the opposition in Syria hasn't requested intervention. But he pointed to other factors as well.

"Obviously, Syrias very different than Libya," Baird said. "The geography, the air defence systems, the neighbourhood that its indont forget youve got Iran and [elements in] Lebanon on either side that have been supportive of the regime.

"You dont have an arms embargo, so others have been delivering arms to the regime. And obviously its a much larger population in much smaller confines than was the case in Libya.

"I think just because we acted militarily in Libya doesnt mean that we should send Canadian Forces into every country where theres trouble," Baird said.

Multiple warnings to get out

The Department of Foreign Affairs has issued almost monthly warnings asking Canadians to leave Syria since protests began in the Middle East and North Africa in January 2011. The notices urged people to leave while commercial flights existed.

The government had to arrange flights last winterto evacuate Canadians from Egypt and Libya as violence grew in those countries.

"We have given, as some of the media may recall, 12, 13, 14 notices," Baird said. "Weve conducted a voluntary evacuation. Certainly every single Canadian citizen whos been in Syria has been offered support [or]help to voluntarily evacuate the country. Those that didnt listen to the first six or seven warnings, we provided an additional six or seven."

Baird announced the embassy's closure following a meeting withwith Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan, foreign affairs minister for the United Arab Emirates.

He also announced further sanctions against Syria on Monday.

"The continuing, appalling violence perpetrated by the Assad regime on the people of Syria compels us to again tighten the vise on those responsible,"Baird said in a statement.