Embassies work overtime to evacuate residents

Beirut: The embassies of Gulf countries in Lebanon have been exerting every effort to evacuate thousands of stranded Gulf residents.

Hamad Saeed Al Shamsi, senior UAE embassy official, told Gulf News on Monday: "We dispatched ten buses. Each bus carried around 45 people towards Syria. Our citizens are safe and we are doing our best to evacuate them."

Ali Sulaiman Al Saeed, Kuwaiti Ambassador in Lebanon, said: "We have successfully evacuated more than 8,000 of our citizens since the beginning of the Israeli aggression. The situation has been very traumatic. However, we are exerting all efforts to evacuate whoever we can."

"We are not only evacuating Kuwaitis, but also GCC nationals. We also evacuated Arab expatriates who live and work in the Gulf."

The Kuwaiti embassy is also helping westerners, including Americans, British and French nationals, to get out of Lebanon.

"We move them out to Syria and they continue to their destinations on their own," said the ambassador.

"We are doing a humanitarian job," said Al Saeed.

Saudi Embassy sources said its diplomatic mission has been evacuating its citizens since the beginning of the military confrontation.