Egypt Embassy Staff Safely Out Of Damascus: FM Source

The Egyptian chargé d’affaires in Damascus, Alaa Abdalziz, and the rest of the embassy staff have safely left Syria, a source at the Egyptian foreign ministry told MENA on Monday.

“The entire embassy staff had been withdrawn before Egypt officially announced severing its ties with Syria,” the source added.

On the Cairo side, Syrian refugees in Egypt have voiced their frustrations over the Syrian embassy’s closure because embassy services are required to obtain official documentation needed for travel to other countries.

According to the foreign ministry source, in the case of a closed embassy, international custom dictates that Syria and Egypt decide on a third country’s embassy to act in its steed.

Morsi severed ties with Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad’s regime on Saturday, attributing his decision, in part, to Lebanese Shiite Hezbollah’s involvement in the civil war on the side of Al-Assad.

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees estimates that more than 77,000 Syrian refugees have made their way to Egypt since the Syrian uprising began in 2011.

Source : Ahram