Dubai: Syria on Sunday recalled its envoy in a tit-for-tat move after Egypt withdrew its ambassador to Damascus, following last week's Arab League call to halt diplomatic cooperation with Syria.
Gulf states have already withdrawn their ambassadors from Damascus and expelled Syrian envoys in their capitals. Other Arabs have made similar moves.
"The decision is a message that Egypt is unsatisfied with the situation in Syria as it is," Foreign Ministry spokesman Amr Rushdy said, the official state news agency said. He added that Egypt's envoy would remain in Cairo until further notice.
"Egypt subsequently learned that the Syrian government had decided to recall its ambassador from Cairo. We have no choice but to respect this Syrian decision," he said.
He said Egypt was responding "step-by-step" to the crisis and said Cairo had been working in public and behind the scenes to support an Arab peace initiative.
Meanwhile, Syrian security forces deployed heavily in a tense Damascus neighbourhood where a mourner was shot dead in the largest anti-regime rally seen in the capital, blunting calls for a "day of defiance."
Although the security force deployment thwarted attempts by activists to stage new protests in Mazzeh neighbourhood, scene of a funeral Saturday that turned into a huge anti-regime rally, businesses there came to a halt, activists said.
Most shops were shut in Mazzeh as well as in the neighbourhoods of Barzeh, Qaboon, Kfar Sousa and Jubar. Student demonstrations had been expected in Mazzeh but security forces were deployed around schools.
However, in central Damascus shops were opened as normal, while state television showed live footage from Mazzeh interviewing people who claimed life was proceeding normally.
Baba Amr shelled
Regime forces meanwhile pounded the flashpoint central city of Homs for 15th straight day yesterday, killing at least four people, activists said, while official Sana news agency reported the murder of a prosecutor and a judge in northwestern Idlib province. The Baba Amr neighbourhood of the defiant city of Homs also came under sporadic shelling by army forces yesterday, the Observatory said, adding that there was heavy shooting in the area of Bab Sbaa.
Saturday's funerals in Damascus were for four people, including two teenagers, killed the previous day when security forces fired on protesters in Mazzeh district which houses many government offices and embassies, according to human rights group and activists.
