Denmark has temporarily withdrawn its ambassador and other Danish staff from Syria because they were not getting enough protection from authorities, the Foreign Ministry said Saturday. The building housing the embassy in Damascus was burned last week by an angry mob protesting anti-Islamic cartoons first published in a Danish newspaper. The Foreign Ministry said it has been pulling out Danish staff since then, and the ambassador left on Friday. "The de-escalation of the protection of the ambassador and his staff to an inadequate level is the reason for the departure," the ministry said in a statement. It said the German Embassy in Damascus would handle Denmark's consular services for the time being. Sweden, whose embassy is in the same building in the Syrian capital, said it did not have any immediate plans to withdraw staff, said Jan Janonius, a spokesman for the Foreign Ministry in Stockholm. Denmark temporarily closed its diplomatic mission in Lebanon earlier this week after similar protests there, Reuters reported.
