Lattakia, SANA – In a message of defiance of the blockade imposed on the Syrian Arab Airlines, a delegation of the Syrian community in France arrived in the Bassel al-Assad International Airport in Lattakia on Thursday.
The community members came on board a SyrianAir aircraft in a flight through which they aimed to challenge the foreign-imposed sanctions on their homeland Syria and support the national Syrian economy and the tourism sector .
“This initiative shows that the Syrian communities in France and other European countries believe in their homeland,” Rima Khleifawi, one of the flight’s coordinators, told SANA reporter upon embarking.
“We want to stand by our homeland in the face of the pressure and conspiracy…We want to contribute to breaking the blockade on the Syrian airlines,” she added.
Khleifawi pointed out that tens of Syrian families abroad cancelled their hotel reservation in various European countries and “insisted to come to Syria to enjoy its beaches and go on tourist tours.”
The participants in the initiative spoke of the pressure and challenges that have come under travelling from France to Algeria so as to finally reach Syria aboard a SyrianAir plane.
Expressing her happiness at being one of the participants, Maha Hammadh noted that the initiative to come to Syria is part of a series of other activities being prepared by the gathering of the Syrian community members in France to contribute to bolstering the steadfastness of their fellow citizens back home against the foreign masters and perpetrators of the terrorist war raging in it.
She struck an optimistic note when she said that the steadfastness of the people in the homeland is “remarkable” and “has largely contributed to altering the image of the reality of the events taking place in Syria” in the eyes of the European and Western public opinion.
“The European community and Western media have started to realize that what is happening in Syria is a conspiracy prompted by Zionist and imperialist ambitions,” Hammadh added.
Besides France, Syrians residing in Spain, Germany, Italy and Britain were among the 50-member delegation.
H. Said