Embassy Row

TRUE FRIEND OF MALTA

Student groups in devoutly Catholic Malta are praising U.S. Ambassador Douglas Kmiec, who announced his resignation after State Department bureaucrats criticized him for spending too much time discussing religion.

Mr. Kmiec “can rest assured that he will be considered … a true friend of Malta, its people and, perhaps to a greater extent, a much-esteemed contributor to the development of young people,” said an open letter signed by representatives of 17 student groups.

The “epitome of Maltese society” is “our fondness of family values and our unwavering faith,” they said in the letter published Sunday in Malta’s Independent newspaper.

Mr. Kmiec, a former law professor at Pepperdine University in California, was a key liaison to the American Catholic community for President Obama during the 2008 election campaign.

In his resignation letter to Mr. Obama last month, Mr. Kmiec rejected criticism from the State Department Inspector General’s Office, which complained that he spent “considerable time” writing and speaking about religion.

“I doubt very much whether one could ever spend too much time on this subject,” Mr. Kmiec said.

RECALL ENVOY FROM SYRIA

Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida is the latest Republican to urge President Obama to recall the U.S. ambassador from Syria to protest the regime’s bloody assault on peaceful demonstrators.

“As ill-advised as it was to restore diplomatic relations with Syria by sending an American ambassador to Damascus, we should now sever ties and recall the ambassador at once,” he said last week.

Sen. John Thune of South Dakota and former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty, a possible Republican presidential candidate, also have demanded the recall of Ambassador Robert Ford.

Mr. Obama sent the career diplomat to Damascus in a recess appointment in December. Mr. Ford arrived in Syria in January.

Former President George W. Bush withdrew Ambassador Margaret Scobey in 2005 to protest suspected Syrian links to the assassination of Rafik Hariri, a former Lebanese prime minister.

Syrian forces have killed an estimated 545 protesters over the past six weeks. On Sunday, Syrian tanks fired on the ancient Roman quarter of the southern city of Daraa, where the uprising against President Bashar Assad began.

DIPLOMATIC TRAFFIC

Foreign visitors in Washington this week include:

Monday

• Pavel Khodorkovsky, executive director of the Institute of Modern Russia and son of Mikhail Khodorkovsky; Dmitry Muratov, editor-in-chief of the Russian newspaper, the Novaya Gazeta, and Cyril Tuschi, a German film director. They attend the screening of a documentary film about the political persecution of Mikhail Khodorkovsky.

Tuesday

• Prince Charles of Britain, who meets President Obama and addresses Georgetown University on sustainable agriculture over a two-day visit.

• Irina Bokova, director-general of UNESCO, who meets with Washington journalists to mark World Press Freedom Day.

• Sergio Berensztein, an Argentine political scientist, and Hernan Charosky, executive director of the Argentine civil society group Citizen Power. They discuss the campaign for October’s presidential and legislative elections in a briefing at the Inter-American Dialogue.

Thursday

• Ziad Abu Zayyad, editor of the Palestine-Israel Journal and a member of the Palestinian National Council. He addresses the American Task Force on Palestine.

• Fouad Sinoura, former primer minister of Lebanon, who addresses the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars.

Friday

• Sergio Bitar and Cecilia Velez, both former ministers of education of Colombia. They discuss education in Latin America in a briefing at the Inter-American Dialogue.

• Call Embassy Row at 202/636-3297 begin_of_the_skype_highlighting            202/636-3297      end_of_the_skype_highlighting or email jmorrison@washingtontimes.com.