(MENAFN- QNA) Thailand's military government has called in the US embassy charge d'affaires to explain American attempts to influence local politics, reports said Sunday.
The legislative assembly installed by the junta asked deputy chief of mission W Patrick Murphy to report to its foreign committee by February 11. The US currently does not have an ambassador in the country.
The committee will question Murphy over a visiting US State Department official's remarks that Thailand should lift martial law, according to the Bangkok Post.
The government said the comments amounted to interference in local affairs.
The Foreign Ministry had already summoned Murphy on Wednesday to express "disappointment" at the comments of Daniel Russell, the assistant US secretary of state for Asian and Pacific Affairs, made at a university forum in Thailand.
Russell called for the junta to end martial law and questioned whether charges brought against deposed prime minister Yingluck Shinawatra were politically motivated.
Yingluck was retroactively impeached late last week and banned from politics for five years. She was removed from office by a court verdict of misconduct. The former premier will also face criminal charges of corruption.
Daniel Russell is the highest ranking US diplomat to visit the country since the military took power in a coup in May.