Monday, July 19, 2010

Egypt Decides To Deny Entry To Jordanian Aid Convoy


"The Egyptian Authorities prevented the “Ansar 1” Jordanian aid convoy from entering Egypt while on their way to deliver humanitarian supplies to the Gaza Strip.

The Egyptian Foreign Ministry issued an official decree preventing the convoy from entering the country by all means, the Qatar-based Al Jazeera reported.

Hussein al-Saoub, head of the “al-Jisr al-Araby”, the Arabic Bridge Company, phoned the head of the Jordanian convoy, late on Sunday at night, informing him that Egypt decided to prevent the convoy from entering Egypt.

There are 138 persons participating in the aid convoy. Al-Sa’oub said that the Egyptian Authorities decided that each person on the convoy is a “Persona non grata”.

The aid was sent by a company owned by the governments in Iraq, Jordan and Egypt; the plan was to leave on Monday morning from Aqaba in Jordan to the Nweibi’ Egyptian city.

Despite the Egyptian decision, convoy organizers decided to head to Aqaba in order to try to sail to Egypt before heading to Gaza.

Head of the Jordanian “Artery Of Life” committee, Wa’el al-Saqqa, said that the “al-Jisr al-Araby” company is the only company in charge of shipments between Aqaba and Nweibi’ on the Red Sea.

The company granted the participants all needed travel tickets and documents but Egypt officially decided to prevent them from entering."

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