Press Denies Envoy Recalled From Cairo
Syria Media Report, 5-Dec-08
Press Denies Envoy Recalled From Cairo
Syria Media Report, 5-Dec-08
The pro-government website ChamPress reported on December 1 that Syria’s ambassador to Egypt, Yousef al-Ahmed, has not left Egypt as had been reported.
Several Arab and western news organisations reported this week that Damascus had recalled the ambassador following mounting tensions with Egypt.
On November 29, Egyptian foreign affairs spokesman Husam Zaki was quoted in media reports as saying that relations with Syria "are not at their best" but that they had not reached a critical point.
During an Arab League foreign ministers’ conference last month, Syrian and Egyptian delegates reportedly got into an argument after Syrian foreign minister Walid al-Moallem called on the Egyptians not to favour Fatah over Hamas in internal Palestinian disputes.
Ambassador Ahmed told the ChamPress website by phone that he was continuing to work in Cairo. He said his government was not satisfied with the current state of relations, but they were “not that bad”.
The ambassador said Syria would not respond to “media campaigns” waged against it in “some Egyptian news outlets and others that are financed by Gulf countries”.
