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Israel OKs huge Lebanon exodus
18/07/2006 21:12 - (SA)
Jerusalem - Israel has agreed to arrangements with several Western governments for a major evacuation of foreign nationals from Lebanon on Wednesday involving 20 vessels, a senior army commander told AFP.
"Twenty boats are going to be able to leave Lebanon on Wednesday against seven on Tuesday and just two on Monday," the commander said, asking not to be identified.
"The Israeli military and the military attachés of various embassies represented in Israel have agreed on arrangements dealing, in particular, with the sea routes these vessels must use.
"The main thing is to avoid the slightest problem," he said, adding that he had no details on the nationalities being evacuated on Wednesday.
Taking a risk
Earlier on Tuesday, Australian foreign minister Alexander Downer had said that Israel had rejected Western appeals for safe passage and safe sea corridors for evacuees being ferried out.
"The Israelis have said so far that this was a war zone, that they wouldn't agree to our requests," Downer said.
The commander insisted Israel was taking a risk by allowing the exodus of evacuees.
"Terrorists may take advantage to escape, but our main worry is that they will try to whisk our two captured soldiers out of the country," he said referring to Shi'ite militant group Hezbollah, whose seizure of the pair in a deadly raid last Wednesday sparked the Israeli onslaught.
"All we can hope is that those who are responsible for organising the evacuations will refuse to take suspicious individuals on board," said the commander.
US ramps up evacuations
Meanwhile, Reutersreports from Washington that the US has said it will be capable of evacuating more than 2 000 Americans from Lebanon on Wednesday.
The US had the capacity to fly 240 people out on Wednesday and use two ships with a total of as many as 2 200 seats for evacuees, said assistant secretary of state Maura Harty.
"We will see a dramatic ramp-up tomorrow (on Wednesday)," she said, adding that the United States had already evacuated a few hundred Americans.
The United States also hopes to ferry a similar number of its citizens from Lebanon on Thursday, she said.
Washington expects to have to evacuate thousands of Americans.
- AFP
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