MESOP : NO VOTING FOR ELECTIONS IN ASSAD’S EMBASSYS

Paris closes embassy over ‘parody’ elections / And whats about Brussels, Rome & Berlin ?

The Syrian Foreign Ministry announced Sunday that the French government had officially closed Syria’s embassy in Paris in protest over Damascus’s plans to hold presidential elections on June 3 despite widespread international condemnation and the country’s ongoing civil war.

The move will prevent Syrian citizens in Paris from casting votes in the poll. “The Foreign Ministry regrets that Syrians in France will not be able to participate in the presidential elections due to the French government’s objection,” wrote state-run SANA news agency. SANA also reported a “major protest [in Paris] condemning the French government’s unjust decision to forbid Syrians…from exercising their constitutional right to vote,” and published photographs showing several dozen citizens waving Syrian flags in a public square. The news came Sunday as Damascus announced the start of the official campaigning period for Syria’s upcoming presidential elections, which the French government has described as a “parody of democracy.”