Blinken hails Egypt’s decision to resume flights with Sanaa

Ahram Online , Sunday 29 May 2022

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has hailed Egypt’s recent decision to resume flights between Cairo and Yemen’s capital Sanaa after years of suspension due to the conflict in the country.

Blinken
Secretary Antony J. Blinken and Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry

 

On Twitter, Blinken said he thanked Egyptian Minister of Foreign Affairs Sameh Shoukry for the step during a "productive call" on Saturday.

"We hope to see the first flight very soon," he added.

Direct flights between Cairo and Sanaa had been halted in the past few years due to the conflict in Yemen.

The Egyptian flagship airline, EgyptAir, has not yet announced a schedule for the resumption of direct flights between the two capitals.

Last week, United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres praised Egypt’s decision to allow direct flights between Cairo and Sanaa in a phone call with Shoukry.

Guterres thanked President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi for the decision, which comes within the framework of the UN-brokered truce in Yemen, the foreign ministry said in a statement on Monday.

For his part, Shoukry expressed hope that this step will help consolidate the truce in Yemen and alleviate the suffering of the Yemeni people, the statement said.

A United Nations-brokered truce that took effect on 2 April – the first day of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan – has offered a glimmer of hope in the conflict, which has triggered what the UN is calling the world's worst humanitarian crisis.

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