Assad supporters rally outside the U.S. Embassy in Damascus on Saturday, July 9, 2011 (Photo: SANA)

(CNSNews.com) – The diplomatic dispute between the United States and Syria deepened on Sunday, when the Syrian government summoned the U.S. ambassador for a dressing-down over his visit last week to a flashpoint town in the anti-government revolt.

Ambassador Robert Ford’s visit to Hama on Thursday and Friday is being portrayed by the Syrian authorities and state media as evidence of the regime’s repeated allegations of foreign influence on the protests.

“U.S. Ambassador's Presence in Hama Condemned, Violates Diplomatic Norms, Affirms U.S. Role in Fueling Conflicts,” read the headline on one report by the official SANA news agency Sunday.

An unapologetic Ford hit back on the embassy’s Facebook page, saying he wished the Syrian government would “stop beating and shooting peaceful demonstrators.”

State media said Syria’s foreign ministry called in Ford to protest his decision to travel to Hama “without the ministry permission,” declaring that to be a violation of international conventions relating to diplomatic relations.

The ministry called the visit “flagrant interference in Syria’s internal affairs and [said] this affirms the existence of foreign encouragement and support to any thing that could undermine security and stability,” SANA said.

The French ambassador, who also visited Hama, also was called in for a formal reprimand on Sunday. State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said Friday the two visits were “not pre-coordinated.”

Supporters of President Bashar Assad held numerous demonstrations across the country at the weekend to denounce “foreign interference,” including a protest outside the U.S. Embassy that dragged on for some 30 hours before Syrian security officials eventually stopped it. During the incident rockets and tomatoes and eggs were hurled at the mission.

In his Facebook note, Ford contrasted the rock-throwing, pro-Assad protestors with the residents of Hama, whom he said had stayed peaceful.

As for protestors throwing eggs and tomatoes, he said, “if they cared about their fellow Syrians the protesters would stop throwing this food at us and donate it to those Syrians who don’t have enough to eat.”

“And how ironic that the Syrian Government lets an anti-U.S. demonstration proceed freely while their security thugs beat down olive branch-carrying peaceful protesters elsewhere.”

SANA reports on the rallies characterized them as “spontaneous” and demonstrations of “popular” sentiment. They quoted participants as condemning “the American-Zionist plot” against Syria and accusing Ford of having met with “saboteurs” in Hama to incite violence.

SANA said protestors had also demanded that the ambassador be expelled.

Obama seeks to re-engage

When he arrived in Damascus in January, Ford filled a post that had been vacant since President Bush withdrew the last ambassador in 2005, after the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri in a bombing blamed on Syria and Hezbollah.

Ford’s nomination was held up in the Senate last year, and President Obama appointed him during the year-end congressional recess. Weeks after he arrived, the protests began.

U.S. Ambassador to Syria Robert Ford took up his post in Damascus in January 2011, after President Obama appointed him during a congressional recess. (Photo: U.S. Embassy, Damascus)

Ford kept a low public profile during the early weeks of the crisis, but then began to become both more visible and more vocal.

As the death toll climbed, a number of mostly Republican figures – including senior lawmakers and presidential hopeful Tim Pawlenty – called on the Obama administration to withdraw Ford.

The administration’s response was to underline the value of having Ford on the ground to report back to Washington on the situation, given the restrictions placed on media coverage. It also stressed the importance of his engagement with the authorities – although for a time his access to officials was limited.

Hama, the town visited by Ford and French ambassador Eric Chevallier on Thursday, was the site of the worst violence in modern Syrian history – the deaths of up to 30,000 people when Assad’s father, the late President Hafez Assad, crushed an Islamist-led revolt in 1982.

Located 130 miles north of Damascus, Hama was relatively quiet in the opening months of the 2011 uprising. In early June, that changed, when scores of people were killed by security forces during a protest there. A huge protest at the beginning of July saw another 16 deaths reported, and the army deployed tanks around the town.

Nuland said Ford did inform the Syrian defense ministry ahead of his visit to the town, as “a matter of courtesy” and because the ambassador had to pass through military checkpoints – which he had done without incident.

She dismissed as “absolute rubbish” the claims that Ford had gone to Hama to deliberately incite protests.

He had left the town before Friday prayers were over, she said, precisely because he was “concerned that it would become about him rather than about the Syrian people.” Protests in Syria – and elsewhere in the region this year – have most often occurred on Fridays, immediately after midday prayers.

“The reason for his visit was to stand in solidarity with the right of the Syrian people to demonstrate peacefully,” Nuland said. “By standing with them, he was representing not only U.S. values but also the importance of having an ambassador at an embassy in Damascus at this time.”

‘This is not about the U.S.’

In his note on Facebook Sunday, Ford said that the U.S. respects “the right of all Syrians – and people in all countries – to express their opinions freely and in a climate of mutual respect. We wish the Syrian government would do the same – and stop beating and shooting peaceful demonstrators.”

“Hama and the Syrian crisis is not about the U.S. at all,” the ambassador wrote. “This is a crisis the Syrian people are in the process of solving. It is a crisis about dignity, human rights, and the rule of law. We regret the loss of life of all Syrians killed, civilians and security members both, and hope that the Syrian people will be able to find their way out of this crisis soon. Respect for basic human rights is a key element of the solution.”

Criticism of Ford’s visit to Hama also came from Syria’s official journalists’ union, which railed against “colonial behavior,” as well as bodies representing lawyers and youth.

Assad’s Iranian ally also weighed in, with deputy foreign minister Mohammad-Reza Sheibani calling the visit “meddling” in Syria’s internal affairs, the IRNA news agency reported.