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Interior Ministry: Saudi Women, Children Stopped from Entering Syria | ASHARQ AL-AWSAT English Archive 2005 -2017
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A Syrian refugee child in Lebanon receives a polio vaccine. AFP


Saudi Arabia said that three women and their seven children, including a one-year-old, had been prevented from travelling to Syria to join the conflict areas.

The women, who are sisters, were stopped in Beirut after one of their husbands informed the Saudi authorities that his wife was heading to Syria, the security spokesman of the Interior Ministry said.

“The security communications unit (990) received a communication from a citizen stating that his wife left the Kingdom along with three of their children, aged between 10 and two years, and accompanied by two of her sisters, one of them has four children, aged between six and one years, so as to join the conflict areas because they have takfiri thought,” the spokesman said.

“It was clear from the follow-up that they left the kingdom and arrived in Beirut. In light of this, immediate coordination was carried out with the competent authorities in the sisterly Republic of Lebanon enabling the intensive efforts to intercept their departure from Lebanon to Syria and maintain their safety,” said the statement, which was published by the official SPA news agency.

The women and their children were all returned to the kingdom on Thursday, according to the statement.

Authorities have organized for the children’s care while the women “will be referred to judicial authorities to take legal action and investigate the circumstances and motives of their travel,” it said.