Egypt Edition 
UAE Edition 
Saudi Edition 
MENA <> India Corridor 
Logistics (MENA) 
Climate (MENA) 
Share
The British Embassy in Cairo has closed its doors after the security barriers outside the building in Garden City were removed by Egyptian authorities, the embassy wrote in a statement. It will remain closed “while the impact of these changes is reviewed.” Until then, emergency consular assistance will be available through its hotline and pre-booked appointments will proceed with adjusted access to the embassy complex.
(Tap or click the headline above to read this story with all of the links to our background as well as external sources.)
“The decision follows growing calls in [Egypt] for a retaliatory response to the UK’s handling of a protest in London,” BBC wrote, citing the arrest of an Egyptian citizen last week in front of the Egyptian embassy in the UK for confronting protestors outside the embassy. Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty is said to have called the UK’s National Security Adviser Jonathan Powell for an explanation over the arrest. Abdelatty previously said that Egypt has the right to respond against countries that “failed to provide protection for Egyptian embassies in accordance with the Vienna Convention.”
El Hekaya’s Amr Adib voiced his support for Egypt’s decision to remove the security barriers (watch, runtime: 16:06). “We’ve asked authorities abroad several times to put barriers in front of Egyptian embassies, but no one would respond to this request,” Former Foreign Minster Mohamed Eloraby told Adib, adding that the decision to remove the barriers is “just an operational decision that should not impact trade and diplomatic relations between Egypt and other countries.”
Ala Masouleety’s Ahmed Moussa also supported the Egyptian authorities’ move, saying that there is no reason to keep the barriers, highlighting that they were first put in place in front of the British and US embassies for security reasons in 2003, and that security is a lot more stable today (watch, runtime: 19:26). The barriers blocked the street where the embassy is located, causing traffic congestion in the area, which sparked complaints from Garden City residents, Moussa said.
