Spain to Evacuate Citizens from Lebanon, Defense Minister Says

 A civil defense worker extinguishes a fire at the site of an Israeli airstrike in Dahiyeh, Beirut, Lebanon, Wednesday, Oct. 2, 2024. (AP)
A civil defense worker extinguishes a fire at the site of an Israeli airstrike in Dahiyeh, Beirut, Lebanon, Wednesday, Oct. 2, 2024. (AP)
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Spain to Evacuate Citizens from Lebanon, Defense Minister Says

 A civil defense worker extinguishes a fire at the site of an Israeli airstrike in Dahiyeh, Beirut, Lebanon, Wednesday, Oct. 2, 2024. (AP)
A civil defense worker extinguishes a fire at the site of an Israeli airstrike in Dahiyeh, Beirut, Lebanon, Wednesday, Oct. 2, 2024. (AP)

Spain plans to send two military aircraft to evacuate as many as 350 citizens from Lebanon as early as Thursday, Spanish Defense Minister Margarita Robles said on Wednesday.

"The Spanish airplanes are ready, the staff are ready, as always with the professionalism of the Spanish army," she said in an interview with Antena 3 TV station.

A group of 350 Spanish citizens present in Lebanon have asked to go to Spain, Robles said in the interview.

Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Albares had said earlier this week around 1,000 Spaniards were in Lebanon.

Israel was hit on Tuesday evening by rockets launched from Iran following a ground incursion of the Israeli armed forces into south Lebanon where they clashed with the Iran-backed Hezbollah group.

The operation followed intense air strikes that have devastated Hezbollah's leadership, including longtime chief Hassan Nasrallah who was killed in Beirut last week.

Beside the 1,000 Spanish residents in Lebanon, Spain has commanded the United Nations' Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) and deployed 650 troops along the southern Lebanese border with Israel, since 2022.



Aboul Gheit Condemns Israeli Airstrikes in Syria

Syrians lift placards as they demonstrate in the central Karama Square of the southern city of Sweida on February 25, 2025, in rejection of statements made by Israel's premier on the weekend. (AFP)
Syrians lift placards as they demonstrate in the central Karama Square of the southern city of Sweida on February 25, 2025, in rejection of statements made by Israel's premier on the weekend. (AFP)
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Aboul Gheit Condemns Israeli Airstrikes in Syria

Syrians lift placards as they demonstrate in the central Karama Square of the southern city of Sweida on February 25, 2025, in rejection of statements made by Israel's premier on the weekend. (AFP)
Syrians lift placards as they demonstrate in the central Karama Square of the southern city of Sweida on February 25, 2025, in rejection of statements made by Israel's premier on the weekend. (AFP)

Arab League Secretary-General Ahmed Aboul Gheit condemned on Wednesday the Israeli airstrikes and ground incursions in Syria as a “a reckless provocation and an escalation that seizes the opportunity of political transition in Syria to establish an illegal and illegitimate reality.”

He called for the international community “to take clear positions to condemn this unjustified aggression that aims to ignite tension in the region and put obstacles in the way of political transition in Syria.”

Since the fall of former Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, Israel has regularly launched airstrike on military sites in Syria and Israeli forces moved into territory in southern Syria adjacent to the Israel-occupied Golan Heights and have made clear they plan to stay indefinitely, citing security concerns.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Sunday that Israel won’t allow Syria’s new army to “enter the area south of Damascus.”

There has been no official response from the Syrian interim government, led by members of the former opposition group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, to Netanyahu’s comments, but Syrian officials have called for Israel to withdraw from the territory it has seized since Assad’s fall.