Czech Republic reopens Damascus embassy

Prague: The Czech Republic, whose embassy has represented the United States in Syria since 2012, has reopened its mission after closing it last month...

Prague: The Czech Republic, whose embassy has represented the United States in Syria since 2012, has reopened its mission after closing it last month following the rebellion that toppled Bashar Al Assad.

The Czech foreign ministry said on Friday it had appointed career diplomat Vitezslav Pivonka to lead the embassy as the charge d'affaires.

Prague has represented the US and other Western countries in Syria after nations closed their embassies because of civil war.

"We restored the activities of our embassy over Christmas," Foreign Minister Jan Lipavsky said late Thursday.

"The head of the section in charge of US affairs is back," he said. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken had recently called him to "make sure that we are going to continue" the service, he added.