Calls for penalizing Saudi ambassador to Egypt

Saudi youths launched an online campaign calling for penalizing Saudi ambassador to Egypt for indifference towards a Saudi woman at Cairo Airport during the evacuation process that took place in the wake of the political unrest that swept the country.

A video that showed the “negligence” with which Saudi ambassador to Cairo Hisham Nazer treated a Saudi woman who was terrified of the security situation in Egypt triggered the harsh criticism he has been receiving ever since.

In the video, posted online, the woman was seen talking to Nazer about the situation of Saudi families who needed to be evacuated from Egypt.

“We are a big country with huge capabilities and we can schedule more flights to evacuate Saudi families,” she told the ambassador.

“Really? So you have solutions?” the ambassador replied, leaving the woman to talk without responding to her complaints.

A campaign launched on the social networking website Facebook under the title “Together to penalize Saudi ambassador Hisham Nazer” attracted more than 500 members and its members stressed that the ambassador’s attitude cannot be overlooked.

Too harsh on the ambassador

The campaign to penalize Nazer was met with indignation on the part of several Saudis who argued that the circumstances in which the conversation between the ambassador and the citizen are not regular ones and that people should not be penalized for their reactions at the time of crisis.

Detractors of the campaign added that this is the biggest evacuation campaign in the history of Saudi Arabia with the kingdom having to fly 21,000 citizens back home within five days and that some of the passengers’ papers were not complete.

The evacuation, they explained, took place in airports that were full of planes as several countries all over the world were evacuating their citizens.

That is why neither the embassy nor the Saudi national carrier was able to control the number of flights heading for the kingdom.

Before questioning Nazer about the incident, it is important to make sure that the video which infuriated the people is not fabricated, said Dr. Mofleh al-Qahtani, chairman of the Saudi Human Rights Association.

“It is very possible that the video is fake or was taken out of context,” he told AlArabiya.net. “We have to verify it then start addressing relevant official bodies about the issue.”

Qahtani added that the embassy has to explain the incident as soon as possible and state whether it took place as shown in the video.

It is very possible that the video is fake or was taken out of context

Chairman of the Saudi Human Rights Association Dr. Mofleh al-Qahtani

Ambassador responds

Ambassador Hisham Nazer slammed the way the issue was blown out of proportion on the internet and stressed that exaggerated reports about the incident are bound to harm Saudi Arabia.

Nazer stressed in press statements that the embassy did its best to serve Saudi citizens within the unusual circumstances Egypt is facing like the security vacuum, curfew hours, and overcrowded departure halls at Cairo Airport.

“It is normal for passengers to be delayed in Egypt even without a crisis let alone when the departure halls are overflowing with passengers from all over the world and when less employees are working at the airport.”

Nazer explained that problems happened when large numbers of people wanted to go back at the same time without taking into consideration the critical situation in which both the embassy and the airlines were placed.

Hisham Nazer was appointed Minister of Planning in 1975 after the Central Planning Authority became an independent ministry and was, therefore, involved in setting Saudi’s five development plans.

In 1986, King Fahad bin Abdul Aziz appointed Nazer as Minister of Petroleum and Mining then in 2005 he was made ambassador to Cairo.

(Translated from the Arabic by Sonia Farid)

It is normal for passengers to be delayed in Egypt even without a crisis let alone when the departure halls are overflowing with passengers from all over the world and when less employees are working at the airport

Saudi ambassador to Cairo Hisham Nazer