BEIRUT — Syria warned the American and French ambassadors Wednesday not to travel outside the capital without permission, two weeks after they angered the government by visiting a city that has become the center of the country's four-month-old unrest.

According to AP, if the U.S. and French envoys disobey the order, Syria will ban all diplomats from leaving Damascus, Foreign Minister Walid al-Moallem said during a lecture at Damascus University.
“We did not evict the two ambassadors because we want the relations to develop in the future and in order for their governments to review their stances toward Syria,” al-Moallem said.
“If these acts are repeated, we will impose a ban preventing (diplomats) from going more than 25 kilometers (15 miles) outside Damascus,” he said.
On July 7 and 8, U.S. Ambassador Robert Ford and French Ambassador Eric Chevallier traveled to Hama, about 125 miles (200 kilometers) north of the capital, in separate trips to express support for the Syrian rebels.
But the government seized on Ford's visit to insist that foreign conspirators are behind the unrest, not true reform-seekers. Within hours of the visit being made public, people attacked the U.S. and French embassies in Damascus, protesting against the foreign intervention in their country’s internal affairs.
Also Wednesday, authorities released prominent political activist Ali Abdullah of the Damascus Declaration opposition group, three days after he was taken from his home near Damascus, the Local Coordination Committees said. Abdullah, who has spent years in jail in the past, was released due to bad health, the group said.
Photo: Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al-Moallem