Greece and Cyprus are preparing an evacuation plan for citizens who may want to flee Lebanon and Israel as the crisis in the Middle East escalates.
Greece late on Monday said it would dispatch a cargo transport plane to the region at Cyprus’s request to assist in the evacuation of Cypriot nationals in Lebanon. There are about 1,500 Cypriots registered there with consular authorities.
Cyprus has fully activated a mechanism to allow third-country nationals evacuating the Middle East safe passage through the island as the crisis in the region worsens, its government spokesperson said.
So far, no country has sought Cyprus’s assistance for a large-scale evacuation of civilians. Still, Cypriot authorities have recently facilitated moving personnel and isolated groups of people through Cyprus, spokesman Konstantinos Letymbiotis said in a statement.
“We are closely following the situation, fully prepared to support evacuation operations as developments unfold,” Letymbiotis said.
Cyprus prepares tents for evacuees from Lebanon and Israel
Cyprus Mail reports that a line of large tents had been erected inside the grounds of the Larnaca port in preparation for any such evacuation.
Foreign ministry spokesman Theodoros Gotsis said the tents had been placed as part of the government’s “maximum state of readiness”, with the tents set to be used for matters such as registering arrivals and other administrative functions.
The UK announced last week that it had sent 700 troops, border force agents, and other officials to Cyprus to help with contingency planning for a range of scenarios in Lebanon.
The country’s foreign office had said the teams “joined the already significant UK diplomatic and military footprint in the region”, with the country also reopening a scheme for its citizens called “Register Your Presence”, which it says will support its citizens in Lebanon and “provide vital updates”.
France was the last colonial power to hold Lebanon, ruling over the country between 1920 and its independence in 1945. There were an estimated 23,000 French nationals living in Lebanon in 2020.
Preparations for a possible mass exodus from Lebanon come as tensions continue to escalate the region, with Israel having wiped out most of the militant group Hezbollah’s leadership, including its leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, in recent weeks. Iran responded by launching dozens of missiles against Israel.
Close to 60,000 people from Lebanon were evacuated through Cyprus in 2006, during the last large-scale conflict between Israel and Hezbollah.
The island is the closest European Union member state to Lebanon, about 40 minutes by air, and 10 hours away by boat. Last week, Britain and the United States said they would be sending military personnel to the island to assist in any potential evacuations.