CAIRO - Hundreds of Egyptians and Syrians opposed to the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad demonstrated outside his country's embassy in Cairo Friday, demanding the expulsion of the ambassador, eyewitnesses said. "Expel the ambassador," some chanted during the peaceful demonstration, while others shouted "the blood of Sunnis will not be shed in vain, O Bashar." Egypt is an overwhelmingly Sunni Muslim country, and the largest religious community in Syria is also Sunni. Echoing the demonstrators' calls, the Muslim Brotherhood's Freedom and Justice Party (FJP), which dominates the new Egyptian Parliament, also called for the "expulsion of the Syrian ambassador in Cairo and the recall of the Egyptian ambassador in Damascus." An FJP statement also called on the government to "recognise the Syrian National Council as the legitimate representative of the Syrian people and to provide it with all kinds of aid." On Wednesday, Egypt's foreign minister said Cairo wants to see "a real and peaceful change in Syria," starting with an immediate end to violence and with the "government responding to the aspirations of the Syrian people." In a statement, Mohamed Kamel Amr said this was necessary to "prevent an overall explosion in the situation, which would have consequences for the stability of the region". Human rights groups say the violence in Syria has cost more than 6,000 lives since it erupted last March. Meanwhile, NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said Friday the Western alliance had no intention of intervening in Syria even in the event of a UN mandate to protect civilians, and urged Middle East countries to find a way to end the spiralling violence. Rasmussen told Reuters that he also rejected the possibility of providing logistical support for proposed "humanitarian corridors" to ferry relief to towns and cities bearing the brunt of President Bashar al-Assad's crackdown on pro-democracy protesters.
