Abu Dhabi/Dubai: About 200 UAE citizens have been evacuated from Lebanon since Wednesday.
An official at the UAE embassy told Gulf News on Saturday it was doing everything possible to evacuate Emiratis still in the country but said it was doing so amid increasingly difficult conditions.
The embassy official said: "The situation is chaotic. The roads are blocked and transport is extremely difficult. That is all the information I can give at the moment."
There are currently no airlines flying between the UAE and Lebanon because Beirut's Rafik Hariri airport has been closed since Tuesday.
Several airlines that normally operate between the UAE and Lebanon, such as Air Arabia, Etihad Airways, Middle East Airlines, Oman Air and Malaysia Airlines, have been forced to cancel all flights between the two countries.
Etihad Airways operated a special flight to Damascus yesterday. The Abu Dhabi-based airline upgraded its scheduled Airbus A319 aircraft to a larger Airbus A330-200.
Geert Boven, Etihad Airways executive vice president of sales and services, said: "We have a duty to care for all our customers and this extends to those who have been stranded in Beirut."
Officially, according to the UAE embassy in Lebanon, 35 UAE citizens were evacuated on Wednesday, 45 on Thursday, about 60 on Friday and about 30 on Saturday.
About 50 left Lebanon over the last few days in their own vehicles.
Meanwhile, renowned journalist Robert Fisk postponed a visit to the UAE yesterday because of the ongoing violence. Fisk, who has lived and reported on the Middle East for 30 years, was due to promote and discuss his new book, The Age of the Warrior.
Fisk said it was impossible to get to the airport from his home in the Corniche Al Manara district of the Lebanese capital.
