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This article is from the Lebanon FAQ, by Alaa Dakroub dakroub@leb.net with numerous contributions by others.

6. What are the airlines servicing Beirut ?

Most European and Arab airlines are now flying to Lebanon.

*Some* are: MEA(obviously), Air-France, Swiss-air,
Austrian Airways, Alitalia, Sabena, Royal Jordanian, Egypt Air.
Britsh Airways, recently annouced that it will resume its flights to
beirut by December 1994. BA is the last Europeen airlines to resum
flights to beirut.
State Department of the US banned MEA from operating from
its NY offices, and travel from the US with MEA has become
very difficult. Here is a related UPI article:

Subject: Lebanese air-carrier chief urges lifting U.S. embargo
Date: Mon, 24 May 93 13:17:16 PDT

BEIRUT, Lebanon (UPI) -- The president of the Lebanese national air
carrier, Middle East Airlines, said Monday that a U.S. order to suspend
MEA activities in the United States has left tens of thousands of
Lebanese stranded there and caused millions of dollars in losses.
MEA President Abdel Hamid Fakhoury called on the U.S. Administration
to exempt his company from a U.S. embargo imposed on Lebanon following
the hijacking of a TWA airliner in 1985.
Accordingly, MEA flights to New York and back to Beirut were
suspended while all other carriers were prevented from selling tickets
from its U.S. offices for destinations in Lebanon.
Fakhoury said MEA abided by the embargo but its U.S. offices
``continued to issue tickets, with the knowledge of the U.S. officials,
placing either Damascus or Cyprus as destination countries.''
``But we were surprised last month of a new U.S. order to cease
immediately all commercial activities, which left tens of thousands of
Lebanese trapped there and inflicting losses estimated at $15 million,''
Fakhoury said.
The new order was apparently in retaliation to a decision by the
Lebanese Military Court on April stating that the 1983 bombing of the U.S.
Embassy in Beirut was covered by a general amnesty law.
The Lebanese Parliament approved the amnesty law as part of a
national reconciliation drive to end the Lebanese civil war.
The U.S. expressed dissatisfaction with the Military Court decision
and accused MEA of violating the embargo imposed during the
administration of President Ronald Reagan.
A month later, the Lebanese Supreme Court overruled the Military
Court decision concerning the U.S. Embassy bombing in which at least six
people were accused of involvement.
A suicide bomber drove through the gate of the U.S. Embassy in the
Muslim sector of Beirut on April 1983, killing 63 people and wounding
123 others.
activities in the U.S. as peace and security were restored in the
country.
He said contacts with U.S. officials have so far failed to alter the
order and called for launching a campaign ``to save the company and
allow the Lebanese residents in the U.S. to visit their homeland.''

The following is a summary of an article which appeared
in Middle East International (MEI - No. 450, p. 9-10);

The background is that Lebanese investigators had
recently identified 15 suspects in the 1991 truck
bombing of the US embassy in Beirut, and the US
government was anxious to see them prosecuted.
However, on April 24, Beirut's military court ruled
that the suspects were included in the general amnesty
covering "political" war crimes approved by the
Lebanese parliament in 1991. The US was incensed that
the court's ruling would render them immune from
prosecution, and warned Lebanese leaders that the
prospect of normalizing relations with the US, which
seemed likely following Secretary of State
Christopher's March visit to Beirut, were no longer
realistic.

The impact on travel stems from the fact that Middle
East Airlines (MEA), which had hoped that it for the way it had
issued tickets to Beirut (actually entered on tth
connecting flights to or from Europe. Although
technically a violation of the US travel ban, this
subterfuge had been used without objection for many
years. Suddenly, MEA was told to stop selling tickets
or doing any other business, and warned that it was
subject to fines of $1000 per day for the entire period
during which it had sold such tickets. The Beirut
government is having a second look at the amnesty law,
and may find a way out of the difficulty, but until it
does so, it may be impossible to get tickets to Beirut
in the US, and MEA is threatened with millions of
dollars of fines, an amount which MEI characterized as
"potentially crippling".

The Lebanese Supreme Court has already reversed the earlier ruling
making the suspects once again not covered by the General Amnesty law
but the US has yet to relax its position with regard to MEA operations
in the United States.

 

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• next: 7. Where can I find tickets for Lebanon at a good price ?

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