Egypt Suspends Tourist Flights With Iran
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published: April 8, 2013 at 12:01 PM ET
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2013/04/08/world/middleeast/ap-ml-egypt-iran.html?ref=world
CAIRO (AP) - Egypt has suspended tourist flights from Iran following an
outcry from hardline Sunni Muslims angered about visitors from the mostly
Shiite country, only a week after direct flights between the two countries
resumed for the first time in more than three decades.
In comments carried by Egypt's state news agency late Sunday, Tourist
Minister Hesham Zaazoua did not give a reason for the move. The suspension,
which will last until June, comes days after a group of ultraconservative
Salafis, angered by the Egyptian government's push to improve ties with
Tehran, threw rocks and tried to storm the residence of Iran's top diplomat
in Cairo.
The crowd that gathered outside the diplomat's home in Cairo on Friday,
chanted "Egypt is Sunni," and "No Shiites in Egypt!" The first tour of some
50 Iranian visitors was limited to Egypt's south, away from potentially
sensitive religious sites revered by Shiites, mostly in the capital.
Many of the protesters, who wore the traditional beards of Salafi
hardliners, raised their shoes in the air - a sign of disrespect in the
region - and tore down the residence's official sign outside the building's
main gate, then stomped on it.
Some of the protesters threw rocks that smashed a window of the building.
Others hung a green-striped Syrian rebel flag on the gate and chanted
against Tehran's support of Syrian President Bashar Assad's regime and the
killing of mostly Sunni anti-government protesters in Syria.
After someone from inside the gate pulled down the flag, some in the crowd
tried to storm the diplomat's residence but Egyptian riot police pushed them
back.
Iran and Egypt do not have embassies or ambassadors in each other's
countries, but do send diplomatic representatives. Full diplomatic ties were
frozen after Egypt signed its 1979 peace treaty with Israel and Iran
underwent its Islamic Revolution. Relations began to improve after former
Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak was forced to step down in a popular
uprising in 2011, and the Islamist Mohammed Morsi won presidential elections
in June.
According to the statement, Zaazoua said that the suspension period will be
used to "reevaluate and review the experience and the tourist program with
the Iranian side."
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