Syria’s President Bashar al-Assad has revoked special visas for European diplomats, limiting their travels back and forth from Beirut and Damascus, Reuters reported on Tuesday.
The multi-entry visas have been replaced with single-entry visas, making it more difficult to distribute aid, according to the report which cited three senior EU diplomats.
"It's a serious problem for the EU's humanitarian assistance. This is a measure that hits diplomats and staff of European government embassies and the European Union institutions," one of the diplomats said.
EU closed most of its embassies in Damascus following the outbreak of the war in 2011, making Beirut the nearest base for diplomats.
The Syrian government did not give any explanation as to why their visas were revoked in the beginning of January, the diplomats said.
A Commission spokesman said that EU was "doing everything in our power to take appropriate measures to minimize any impact on the delivery of EU humanitarian assistance inside Syria."
The diplomats added that they believed the decision to revoke their visas was an attempt by Assad to force EU to re-open its embassies.
Chris, athenasius and anath like this.
AH, you posted this thread on the Isaiah 17 forum also.
Chris, athenasius, chaser and 3 others like this.
I did that on purpose so Chris could include it in the "Home" page of today's headlines. He only pulls from this sub forum to go to the HOME page listings. I did it this way to make things easier and faster for Chris.
Chris, athenasius, chaser and 2 others like this.