United Kingdom
United States
Asia Pacific
Australians moved out of Lebanon
Eighty-six Australians were evacuated to Syria on three buses last night, and the federal government hopes to rescue more today.
The government also hopes to evacuate up to 600 more Australians by ferry to Cyprus tomorrow.
“Security permitting, we’ll continue with the bus evacuations during the course of today, and then we hope to have a ship tomorrow,” Foreign Affairs Minister Alexander Downer said.
“Of course, we’ve got to persuade the ship charter company that it would be safe for its ship to go into a Lebanese port and start to evacuate people from that port, because … ports have been very much targeted by the Israelis.”
Mr Downer said he did not know how many Australians wanted to leave Lebanon, as up to 25,000 had dual citizenship and had been living there permanently.
But he expected many of the 4,600 registered with the Australian embassy would want to be brought home.
“In the meantime, people should just stay put and keep calm,” Mr Downer said.
He defended Australia’s response to the crisis, rejecting criticism that it had been too slow to evacuate its citizens.
“No other government has been able to do better than we have,” he said.
“I think we’ve done pretty much the best of any government in the situation.
“We have … logistical problems that European governments don’t have because their resources are much nearer to hand.”
Syria’s ambassador in Canberra, Tamman Sulaiman, said all Australians fleeing Lebanon would be safe as soon as they reached his country’s border.
Mr Sulaiman said all evacuating Australians would be able to obtain entry visas at border posts. “Hezbollah does not prevent their passage or put up any obstacles to people leaving, and the only problem is Israeli shelling,” he said.
The British Government has also begun evacuations.
A spokesman for the British Foreign Office says Royal Air Force chinook helicopters have rescued around 40 women, children and those in need of medical care from Beirut.
Britain is also sending two Royal Navy ships to the region for a larger evacuation plan.
Graham Muldoon
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