Air Path Shut, Syria Puts Off Flight to Libya

The national airline here postponed a flight to Libya on Monday that would have violated a U.N.-ordered air embargo, saying it has been denied permission to fly over countries en route.

An official at Syrian Arab Airlines did not identify the countries that supposedly denied permission, but sources said that Egypt, Greece and Tunisia all had rejected the Syrian plan to fly to Tripoli.

The airline official and the sources spoke on condition of anonymity.

Libyan leader Col. Moammar Kadafi had met in Tripoli with several Syrian officials Sunday as Syria appeared ready to defy the embargo. The U.N. Security Council imposed the sanction on Libya last Wednesday after it refused to surrender two suspects in the 1988 bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 who were indicted by the United States and Britain last fall.

Since the ban on air travel to Libya went into effect, Syria’s government has been silent on whether it would honor it.

In Tripoli, meanwhile, Kadafi’s government told foreign journalists Monday to stop reporting from Libya and continued to expel European diplomats.

Ambassador Leon Doyen of Belgium said Monday that three of the eight diplomats in his embassy had been expelled, the same number that Brussels ordered home to Tripoli when the sanctions took effect.

Sweden said Sunday that one of its three diplomats in Tripoli was ordered home in retaliation for the expulsion of five Libyans from Stockholm. Italy announced last week that six people at its Tripoli embassy had been expelled by the Kadafi government.

A Libyan Information Ministry official told Western and Arab journalists working for Western news organizations that they could no longer report from Libya.

“We are not expelling you, but you cannot send out any reports or do any work in Libya,” said the official, who refused to let his name be reported. “These are higher orders. The foreign press is expected to leave as soon as possible.”