Canada is preparing to evacuate some 45,000 of its citizens from Lebanon, according to multiple sources.
The Gulf nation of Kuwait has already begun the process.
The Ottawa government has deployed military forces to the region in preparation for the evacuation, the sources reported.
On Friday (June 21), Canadian Foreign Minister Melanie Joly discussed the increasing likelihood of war between Israel and Iran’s Lebanese proxy, Hezbollah in a conversation with Israel’s Foreign Minister Israel Katz, Israel’s Channel 12 News reported.
In response, Katz urged Joly to exert diplomatic pressure on Iran to rein in Hezbollah and reduce the rising hostilities. “The window of opportunity is closing,” he emphasized.
Israel cannot allow the Hezbollah terror organization to continue attacking its territory and citizens, and soon we will make the necessary decisions. The free world must unconditionally stand with Israel in its war against the axis of evil led by Iran and extremist Islam. Our…
— ישראל כ”ץ Israel Katz (@Israel_katz) June 21, 2024
On June 17, Canada updated its travel advisory risk level for Lebanon to “avoid all travel.”
Lebanon’s Iranian proxy, Hezbollah, is storing massive amounts of Iranian weapons at Rafic Hariri International Airport, Lebanon’s main civilian airport in Beirut, according to a report published Sunday by the British Telegraph news outlet.
Among the weapons being stored at the airport are a variety of missiles and explosives, plus a high explosive powder, RDX, also known as cyclonite or hexagon.
Kuwait Dispatches National Carrier to Beirut
The Gulf nation of Kuwait has already begun the process of pulling its nationals out of the impending war zone.
Kuwait’s national carrier, Kuwait Airways, dispatched the first aircraft on Saturday “to evacuate nationals from Lebanon,” the official Kuwait news agency KUNA reported.
In a separate announcement, the airline said it was operating large planes to fly to Beirut to accommodate Kuwait citizens returning home, according to Al Arabiya.
Kuwait’s Foreign Ministry urged its citizens in Lebanon on Friday to leave “as soon as possible.” In a statement posted to the ministry’s website, Kuwait called on its citizens to “refrain from heading to the Lebanese Republic at the present time in view of the successive security developments that the region is going through.”
