Britain announced Thursday that it has withdrawn its diplomatic staff from Syria “because of a growing risk to their safety”.

Britain announced Thursday that it has withdrawn its diplomatic staff from Syria “because of a growing risk to their safety”.

British Foreign Secretary William Hague said he wrote a statement to the parliament in which he stated that “I wish to inform the House that I have taken the decision on security grounds to suspend the services of the British Embassy in Damascus and to withdraw all diplomatic staff.”

“We now judge that the deterioration of the security situation in Damascus puts our Embassy staff and premises at risk, and have taken the decision to withdraw staff accordingly,” he added, indicating that “our ambassador and diplomatic staff left Syria on 29 February and will return to the UK shortly.”