Syrian President Bashar Assad dismissed one of his government ministers for including an Israeli journalist on a media tour of government-held areas in Syria last April, Saudi-owned news agency Al-Arabiya reported Tuesday.
Mohammed Ramez Tarjuman, Syria's Minister of Information, allowed Jonathan Spire to enter military areas controlled by the Assad regime and meet with ministers and Army officers during the trip.
"I met Mohammed Tarjuman as part of a group on two occasions during the trip," Spire told the Times of Israel on Tuesday. "The visit was organized with the cooperation of his ministry, making the minister, I suppose, officially responsible for its management."
"It would seem to me that organizations other than the ministry of information might more properly be held responsible for incidents of this kind," he added. "Still, I don't suppose my opinion would be especially relevant here. The Syrian regime, as is well known, operates according to its own logic."
Tarjuman said Spire entered Syria with a British passport, but government officials responded by saying that a simple Google search would have shown Spire was Israeli.
Tarjuman's firing comes a day after Syria's state news agency announced Assad had reshuffled his government by replacing the ministers of defense, information, and industry.
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