US ‘Strongly Condemns’ Throwing Tomatoes at Envoy
Clinton: Throwing Tomatoes at Ford 'Wholly Unjustified'
The US State Department has issued a statement today “strongly condemning” Syrian protesters for throwing tomatoes at US Ambassador to Syria Robert Ford, with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton terming the tomato throwing “wholly unjustified.”
Ford has become something of a target among the supporters of President Bashar Assad, having insinuated himself into the protests with a high profile visit to a protest site and issuing statements insisting the Assad government can’t even theoretically reform.
This has fueled allegations that the protesters are being duped by the US government into rebelling, and the move by pro-Assad demonstrators sparked a serious diplomatic row. The US insists Ford was “uninjured” by the tomatoes and was escorted back to the embassy by Syrian police.
Protests continued apace across Syria today, with at least 17 protesters killed. The attacks on protesters centered around Homs and Daraa, with some violence also reported in the Idlib Province in the far north.
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Shane
September 29th, 2011 at 9:34 pm
Those aren't just any tomatoes. Their terrorist tomatoes.
Andron
September 30th, 2011 at 1:40 am
Its better and more civilized than the American way of killing people off with drones.
RickR30
September 30th, 2011 at 7:47 am
Next: the US bans tomatoes in Syria. To be followed by drone assassinations on terrorists seen with a tomato in hand.
Druthers
September 30th, 2011 at 8:37 am
Ah do declare, ah feared for the life of our honorable and disinterested ambassador.
After pie throwers in the US, now tomato throwers – they might even have secret training camps for rotten eggs throwers.
These terrorists are truly terrifing!
Jaime
September 30th, 2011 at 11:16 am
The freedom tomato?
Aarky
September 30th, 2011 at 1:58 pm
If our esteemed Ambassador is going to keep stirring up the local folks and gets tomatoes tossed at him, he should catch the things and make bacon and tomato sandwiches.
Druthers
October 4th, 2011 at 1:40 pm
As a boy said on discovering a waste paper basket – Oh, what a good idea!