US punishes Syria by refusing to issue tourist visas includes Syrian officials

Western diplomatic sources told the London-based al-Hayat daily that the embassy "suspending the issuance of entry visas to the US for an indefinite time also covers Syrian officials."

But the sources added that the "diplomatic punishment" responding to the scars last Saturday's demonstration left on the relations between Washington and Damascus will not reach the level of summoning up the US ambassador Ryan Crocker to his country.

Meantime, well-informed Syrian sources said that Syrian Foreign Minister Farouk al-Sharaa "submitted an official apology" to Crocker over the "damages inflicted in the buildings of the US missions and its properties" in Syria and considered this as "open apology," which the US was persistent in demanding from Damascus.

Earlier, the Syrian Foreign Ministry said in an official statement that "hundreds of thousands of Syrian students and citizens broke into the streets of Damascus, expressing their protest against the aggression on Iraq, demanding suspension of the aggression." Western diplomatic sources said the "demonstration will largely affect relations between the two countries and that a great change will take place and that the way of thinking will be different after December as well as suspending the issuance of visas to the Syrians, including officials, except for the UN, unless a great developments would take place."

But the sources added that developments between the two countries will not reach "summoning the US ambassador to his country or shutting down the US embassy in Damascus." Crocker will stay outside the headquarters of the embassy in the coming six months due to damage inflicted to his residence.

The western diplomatic sources indicated that Crocker accompanied with him Syrian Deputy Foreign Minister Suleiman Haddad and the chief of protocol at the Syrian Foreign Ministry, Tawfiq Salloum, on a visit to "get acquainted with the resulted damage," adding that the Syrian officials were "surprised by the volume of inflicted damage."