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Coverage of the Events since October 2000
Hände weg von Israel und Islam!
[Warning To Israel Of Future If Sovereign Gaza] British Airways To Fly To Beirut, Breaking Israel's Air Blockade
2006-09-06
[Dr. Aaron Lerner - IMRA: The move by British Airways serves as an important "civics lesson" to the many Israelis who take a cavalier attitude towards the significance of a possible change in the status of the Gaza Strip. Right now the Gaza Strip remains inside Israel's security envelope. Give it a sovereign status - as proposed in an interim Roadmap stage - and all bets are off.]
The Associated Press - Haaretz
www.haaretz.com/ hasen/spages/ 759498.html
A British airline will fly directly to Beirut on Wednesday in what it said would be a breach of an Israeli air embargo on Lebanon imposed at the start of its war with Hezbollah eight weeks ago.
The announcement by British Airways franchise partner BMED coincided with efforts by UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan to get Israel to lift its air and sea blockade of Lebanon.
"British Airways/BMED is breaking the air embargo and flying into (Beirut's) Rafik al-Hariri International Airport tonight," the company said in a statement.
BMED's commercial director, Jonathan Grisdale said the airline was resuming flights to Beirut after securing assurances from the British government it was safe to do so.
"The blockade is still in place," Grisdale said, denying that BMED had sought Israel's permission for the flight.
"We are a UK civil airline trying to operate a lawful service in Lebanon," he said by telephone from London. "Our government has given us clearance and permission that we can operate safely and securely on that basis."
An IDF spokeswoman said permission to land in Beirut is granted to any flight that meets unspecified criteria.
"Yesterday 20 flights were permitted to land," she said. "There is obviously an interest to let whoever wants to return [to Lebanon] for humanitarian reasons do so."
Lebanon's Middle East Airlines and Royal Jordanian began flying regularly into the capital last month, but have complied with Israel's insistence that all such flights go via Amman. Qatar's national airline began flying commercial flights into Lebanon earlier this week. Israel said it had coordinated the flight, but Qatar Airlines said it had gone ahead without Israeli permission.
Gulf Air said Wednesday it was resuming commercial flights to Lebanon, with the first flight to be operated on Saturday.
The company, co-owned by Bahrain and Oman, said it had been monitoring the situation to resume flights as early as possible and its security and operational specialists visited Lebanon last month to ensure that services could resume safely and effectively.
"We have worked closely with local and international authorities to ensure the re-start of flights as soon as it was safe to do so. We are completely satisfied that the time is right to resume services," said Gulf Air President and Chief Executive James Hogan
Source: IMRA – Independent Media Review and Analysis
