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Cypriot authorities held a special meeting on Monday in a bid to prepare for a major influx of foreigners fleeing Lebanon which is under intense Israeli bombardments.

Cypriot Foreign Ministry’s Consular Affairs Division Director Omiros Mavrommatis told the press that the meeting dealt with the basic concerns of how to facilitate foreign nationals expected to arrive in Cyprus from Lebanon on ships.

European and other countries plan to evacuate their nationals from Lebanon through Cyprus, either by air or by sea.

France has already chartered a Greek cruise ship named ” Ierapetra” to pull out French and other European citizens from Lebanon to Cyprus.

The U.S. State Department also announced that it worked on plans to carry U.S. nationals from Lebanon to Cyprus, while Britain already began to transfer British and other citizens from Lebanon to its Sovereign Base Areas in Cyprus.

“At this moment, there are tens of thousands of Europeans and other nationals in Lebanon and some countries use Cyprus for repatriating their citizens,” Mavrommatis said.

He said that an Italian ship was expected to arrive in Cyprus later in the day, carrying 400 Italians from Lebanon, while ” Ierapetra” was to arrive in Cyprus by Tuesday, carrying passengers including 300 children - 200 of them unescorted - as well as 10 Cypriot volunteers who are on board to take care of the unescorted children.

Another four or five vessels are also planned to reach Cyprus within the week, carrying more than 5,000 persons, the senior Cypriot official said.

In addition, Mavrommatis said that the meeting also discussed the possibility of Lebanese nationals fleeing to Cyprus and expressed hope that the crisis in Lebanon could cease so that the Lebanese would not be forced to leave their homeland.

Furthermore, British High Commission Spokesman George Stylianou said that Britain was in full coordination and cooperation with Cypriot authorities for the transferring of British and other nationals from Lebanon.

Stylianou said that a British military helicopter carried approximately 40 persons, mainly British citizens and other nationals from Lebanon, adding that a second helicopter flight was planned.

He added that about 4,000 British families were currently in Lebanon - the largest group of EU nationals there.

According to Stylianou, France and the U.S. have requested and secured permission to use the British Sovereign Bases in Cyprus to transfer their nationals.

Israel has intensified air raids on Lebanese targets since launching a massive assault on July 12 when Lebanon’s Hizbollah guerillas kidnapped two Israeli soldiers and killed eight in cross- border attacks.

Source and Copyright: Xinhua Agency via The People’s Daily China.

A total of 50 Cypriots and other nationals arrived at Larnaca airport on Sunday on board an Olympic Airways aircraft carrying passengers fleeing from Lebanon, via Damascus in Syria.

A Cypriot Foreign Ministry official told the Cyprus News Agency that the evacuees consisted of 40 Cypriots, one Swede, one Spaniard, four Lebanese, one German, two Lithuanians and two Americans, adding that all 50 persons are well.

The aircraft continued its trip to carry 80 Greeks and other nationals to Athens. Other evacuations have taken place. On Sunday an Olympic Airways jet transferred 27 people to Cyprus, of which 22 were Cypriots.

Under a French initiative to evacuate all European citizens, a cruise ship chartered by the French government was expected to help evacuate citizens from Lebanon on Sunday.

Five Italian military C-130 transferred Italian and other European citizens from Lebanon to Cyprus overnight on Saturday.

The US State Department announced that it has been working with the US Defence Department on how they will transport US citizens to Cyprus, from where they will embark on commercial flights for onward travel.

The Cypriot government said it would issue special visas to Lebanese citizens who live in Europe and wish to come to Cyprus to be near their country.

Meanwhile, Cyprus has declared its readiness to assist all citizens. “Cyprus is prepared to assist every foreign citizen trapped in Lebanon. We will provide every possible assistance and all necessary accommodation to assist all European citizens and other nationals,” Cypriot Government Spokesman Christodoulos Pashiardis said on Sunday.

However, not missing the opportunity to push Cyprus’ commercial interests and desire to become a regional hub for commerce, the Spokesman added “Cyprus, an EU member state will prove to be a safe destination and an effective communication hub between Europe, Middle East and Africa.”

The government yesterday said it was sending a navy frigate to Lebanon to help evacuate Greeks living in the country, which has been pounded by Israeli air strikes over the past days, as an Olympic Airlines flight carrying 64 Greeks and 26 foreigners arrived at Athens International Airport from Damascus. The passengers had been driven to the Syrian capital from Beirut whose airport has been damaged by Israeli air strikes and is out of service.

The OA aircraft had earlier dropped off 46 Cypriots in Larnaca, Deputy Foreign Minister Theodoros Kassimis said, adding that another OA aircraft was ready to leave for Damascus. Greek planes will continue to conduct special flights to collect Greeks and other foreign nationals who wish to get out of Lebanon, the ministry said.

The ministry also announced that it would keep additional navy warships on standby “for the possibility of a mass evacuation of Greek citizens,” of whom there are an estimated 2,500 in Lebanon.

France, which has around 20,000 nationals living in Lebanon - a former colony - said it had chartered a Greek cruise ship to evacuate as many French citizens and other Europeans as possible from the strife-torn nation. The Ierapetra, which can carry up to 2,000 passengers, is due to make a stop at Limassol today to collect medical personnel before traveling on to Beirut.

Meanwhile, Cyprus has become a key transit point for the evacuees of all nationalities fleeing Lebanon. Yesterday alone, Italian military aircraft flew 350 people to the island, the Cypriot Foreign Ministry said. According to ministry spokesman Giorgos Yiangou, the island was due to receive “hundreds, if not thousands” of foreigners.

A second Olympic Airlines (OA) special flight carrying Greeks and nationals of other countries fleeing the violence in strife-torn Lebanon arrived at Athens’ Eleftherios Venizelos International Airport from Damascus in the early afternoon on Sunday the Athens News Agency reports.

The OA Boeing-737, chartered by the Greek foreign ministry, arrived in Athens at 14:00, carrying 64 Greek nationals and 26 citizens of other countries.

The flight left Damascus at 11:00 a.m., and in less than an hour landed at Larnaca airport where it disembarked 46 Cypriot citizens who had sought assistance from the Greek embassy in Beirut to leave the war zone, before continuing to Athens.

The first special OA flight chartered by the foreign ministry brought another 90-odd people from Damascus to Athens on Saturday.

The passengers on board Saturday’s OA special flight 3148, which touched down at Eleftherios Venizelos airport at 14:00, had travelled by road to Damascus from Beirut and other areas of Lebanon, where an Israeli offensive was continuing at unreduced intensity.

Special Olympic Airlines (OA) flight 3148 took off from Athens for Damascus in the early hours of Saturday, where it was due to pick up some 90 passengers, including Greek foreign ministry staff. As well as Greeks, it also carried several citizens of third countries that had requested the assistance of the Greek Embassy in Beirut in order to get out of besieged Lebanon. These included at least 20 Cypriots, eight French nationals, two Britons, one U.S. citizen, a Czech, an Italian and five people with dual nationality.

The airplane took off from Damascus shortly after 11:00 on Saturday morning headed for Larnaca airport on Cyprus, where it let off 22 of the people on board, before continuing the journey to Athens.

Deputy foreign minister Theodoros Kassimis, speaking to reporters on Saturday, said the 136-person group was led by a Lebanese police vehicle via a safe route to the Lebanon-Syria border, where they were picked up by Greek diplomats and led to Damascus airport.