OTTAWA, December 15 - Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird warned Thursday that about 5,000 Canadians living in violence-ridden Syria should get out of the country as quickly as posible.
At a news conference held in Ottawa, Ont., Baird said that ten months of political rioting and very harsh government response was finally coming to a head, Postmedia News reported.
"The time to leave Syria is now," Baird said. "The writing on the wall could not be more clear."
Baird also said that children of Canadian diplomats had already been relocated to an undisclosed location. Embassy officials in Damascus have been instructed to expedite others' evacuation.
"The government is ready to provide specialized consular services to those who wish to leave," the Minister said.
Baird's warning came on the heels of an announcement by the Arab League that it was imposing restrictions on air travel into and out of Syria as a retaliation for President Bashar Assad's refusal to draw down his troops against demonstrators.
"I must warn that should Canadians stay in Syria, we will not be able to guarantee the current service at our embassy or that commercial options to leave the country will remain available," the minister said.
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