Standing among the smirking Syrian diplomats and police agents he has to utter some unctuous blather.

Ahmad Hassan is a Syrian diplomat and politician who served as information minister.

Syrian diplomats based in Washington and New York did not respond to telephone requests for comment on the report.

The Syrian diplomats are more acceptable to the British than the Iranians.

The objective was to scare Syrian diplomats in Europe and make them believe they were the targets of Hizballah terrorist attacks.

Khaled al-Ayoubi is a former Syrian diplomat.

He was the most senior Syrian diplomat left in London after the British government forced embassy staff to leave in May.

Turkey and Japan later expelled Syrian diplomats, increasing the number of nations to do so to 13.

On May 30 Turkey and Japan joined other nations and expelled senior Syrian diplomats.

A number of Western nations expelled senior Syrian diplomats in protest.