Sweden refuses Israeli president’s plane entry into its airspace

Swedish authorities refused on Sunday to allow the plane of Israeli President Shimon Peres to cross into its airspace en route to Norway, causing him to arrive late to his official reception.

When Stockholm refused the plane permission to cross, the pilots were forced into a holding pattern over the Baltic Sea for 20 minutes until they were rerouted via Denmark’s airspace.

Peres’s office blamed Stockholm, while the Israeli Foreign Ministry pointed the finger at the President’s Office and the private airline company responsible for arranging the trip.

Israel’s Haartez newspaper reported the ministry saying that Peres’s office had failed to follow the correct protocols, resulting in its intervention.

The ministry said that it should have been arranging the flight all along, but Peres’s office claimed that Sweden had approved it. The Swedish authorities said they had no knowledge of the flight.

However, Israel’s Shin Bet intelligence services verified that all permissions had been granted, but permission was later revoked for unknown reasons.

Ceegaag.com