Australia calls on its citizens to leave Lebanon “immediately” for safety reasons

Australian authorities on Thursday called on their citizens to “immediately” leave Lebanon for security reasons as tensions between Israel and the Shiite militia party Hezbollah rise in the region. “My message to Australian citizens and residents in Lebanon is: now is the time to leave. If you are in Australia and are thinking of travelling to Lebanon, do not do so,” said Foreign Minister Penny Wong in a video in which she recalled that some commercial flights are still operating for now. In this regard, she warned that the Lebanese government could proceed to close the airport in Beirut, the capital, if a wider conflict breaks out in the area. If this happens, Australian citizens would have to leave the country through Cyprus, as in 2006 during the Lebanese war. However, senior government officials have stressed that there are no guarantees about a possible rescue operation of such magnitude. “Since the evacuation in 2006 we have seen the terrible explosion in the port of Beirut, which has affected port capacity. We have also seen a deterioration in the security situation in the countries bordering Lebanon. So the context in which we are operating (…) and the plans we have made are much more complex today than in the past,” said Deputy Foreign Minister Tim Watts.