Egyptian Airlines has delayed its flight to Beirut for 3 hours after the refusing of 8 Syrian passengers to be deported on the same plane to Beirut, according to the new Egyptian regulations which require visas and security clearances for Syrian nationals.
Ninety-five passengers on a Syrian Airlines flight from Latakia
were turned away, on Monday, along with 55 other Syrian nationals on a Middle
East Airlines flight from Beirut and 39 traveling to Egypt on other airlines.
Haitham
al-Maleh, head of the legal committee the national coalition was stuck at the
Cairo airport too. Al-maleh had entered Egypt after diplomatic mediation
and two hours waiting but the fate of 20 families still unknown. Zaman Alwasl
reporter said.
Syrian nationals did not
need a visa to enter Egypt before the new regulations were put in place.
According to the report,
Egyptian authorities also deported a group of Palestinians who landed in Cairo
en route to the Gaza Strip. They were reportedly required to return to their
countries of origin at their own expense.
the Egyptian foreign ministry spokesperson announced on Sunday
that Egypt and Syria have agreed to keep relations between the two countries on
a consulate level, state news agency MENA reported according to Ahram Newspaper.
This does not mean restoring full diplomatic relations between the
two countries.
In
February 2012, Egypt withdrew its ambassador from Damascus.
In June, former president Mohamed Morsi announced the
cutting of all diplomatic ties with Bashar Al-Assad's regime, closing both
embassies.
The ministry spokesperson said that the recent agreement was made to address the needs of Egyptian and Syrian citizens in both countries.
The countries have agreed to re-open the Egyptian consulate
in Damascus and the Syrian consulate in Cairo.
Until May, the Egyptian embassy in Syria had facilitated the
return of over five thousand Egyptians from Syria since the conflict started in
2011.
Meanwhile, Egypt has become home to hundreds of thousands of
Syrians fleeing the ongoing conflict in their country.
The Egyptian Armed Forces deposed President Mohamed Morsi on
Wednesday following nationwide protests which, numbering in the millions,
called for his ouster. Judge Adly Mansour, former head of the High
Constitutional Court, was sworn in as the country's interim president on
Thursday.
The plane resumed its journey without the Syrian passengers, but after a delay of 3 hours, to be deported eight passengers on board the next flight to Beirut.
Eqtsad, Business newspaper affiliated with Zaman Alwasl
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