British Foreign Secretary William Hague announced on Thursday that the country has withdrawn its entire diplomatic staff from Damascus.

Britain had maintained an embassy in Damascus to "help communicate with all parties in Syria and to provide insight into the situation on the ground," the foreign secretary said in a statement to Parliament this morning.

"Throughout this time we have kept the security situation of our staff and Embassy premises under intense and constant review. 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," Hague said.

Britain "will continue to work closely with other nations to coordinate diplomatic and economic pressure on the Syrian regime," he added.

The British ambassador and diplomatic staff have left Syria on Wednesday and will return to the Britain shortly.