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Countries Evacuating Citizens from Iran and Israel 

Expats, including diplomats from different nationalities, who were stranded in West Bank and Israel, wait as they hold belongings while being evacuated through the King Hussein Bridge crossing, in South Shuna, Jordan June 19, 2025. (Reuters)
Expats, including diplomats from different nationalities, who were stranded in West Bank and Israel, wait as they hold belongings while being evacuated through the King Hussein Bridge crossing, in South Shuna, Jordan June 19, 2025. (Reuters)
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Countries Evacuating Citizens from Iran and Israel 

Expats, including diplomats from different nationalities, who were stranded in West Bank and Israel, wait as they hold belongings while being evacuated through the King Hussein Bridge crossing, in South Shuna, Jordan June 19, 2025. (Reuters)
Expats, including diplomats from different nationalities, who were stranded in West Bank and Israel, wait as they hold belongings while being evacuated through the King Hussein Bridge crossing, in South Shuna, Jordan June 19, 2025. (Reuters)

Countries around the world are taking measures to evacuate their citizens from Israel and Iran as the two nations enter the seventh day of their air war and airspace in the region remains closed.

A week of Israeli air and missile strikes against its major rival has wiped out the top echelon of Iran's military command, damaged its nuclear capabilities and killed hundreds of people, while Iranian retaliatory strikes have killed at least two dozen civilians in Israel.

Here are some of the countries whose citizens have left:

AUSTRALIA The Australian government evacuated by land a small group of the 1,200 Australians seeking to leave Israel on Wednesday, Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong said on Thursday. Around 2,000 Australians in Iran have registered for assistance.

AUSTRIA 48 Austrians have left Israel or neighboring Jordan, out of the 200 who reported to the Tel Aviv embassy, the Foreign Ministry said. Around 100 Austrians have requested to leave Iran. 44 Austrian and EU citizens have been evacuated towards Türkiye and Armenia, it added.

BULGARIA Bulgaria has evacuated 17 diplomats and their families from Iran to Azerbaijan and will repatriate them by land and air, the Bulgarian government said. An administration at the Bulgarian embassy in Tehran is moving temporarily to Baku.

CHINA China has evacuated more than 1,600 citizens from Iran and hundreds more from Israel, a Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson said on Thursday. Several thousand Chinese nationals are thought to reside in Iran, according to state media reports.

CZECH REPUBLIC A flight with 66 people evacuated from Israel had landed near Prague, Czech Defense Minister Jana Cernochova said.

FRANCE France will arrange a convoy by the end of the week from Iran to the Turkish or Armenian borders, French foreign minister Jean-Noel Barrot said on Thursday. French citizens in Israel can board buses starting Friday morning from the Jordanian border, with a flight chartered from Amman, Barrot said.

GERMANY 345 German citizens have left the Middle East region, the foreign ministry said, after the country provided charter flights to Germany.

GREECE Greece has evacuated 16 nationals and their families by land from Iran to Azerbaijan and is now working on their repatriation to Greece, the foreign ministry said on Thursday.

INDIA India said on Wednesday it has launched "Operation Sindhu" to evacuate Indian nationals from Iran. 110 Indian students have been evacuated from northern Iran into Armenia on June 17, India's foreign ministry said.

ITALY Italy is organizing a charter flight from Egypt on June 22 to allow its citizens to leave Israel if they want to. 29 of the about 500 Italian nationals leaving in Iran already left the country on Wednesday with assistance from the government, a diplomatic source said.

JAPAN Japan's government said on Thursday it would send two Self-Defense Forces transport aircraft to Djibouti in preparation for the evacuation of Japanese nationals from Iran and Israel.

NEW ZEALAND New Zealand temporarily closed its Tehran embassy and evacuated two staff and their families by land to Azerbaijan.

POLAND A group of Polish citizens evacuated from Iran landed in Warsaw on Thursday morning, ending the evacuation from the country, the Foreign Ministry said. The first plane evacuated from Israel landed in Warsaw on Wednesday morning and a second one was expected on Thursday afternoon from Amman, with 65 people on board.

PORTUGAL Portugal has temporarily shut its embassy in Iran and evacuated four of its citizens via Azerbaijan. It has received 130 repatriation requests from citizens in Israel and is organizing a repatriation flight, expected to land in Portugal later on Thursday, the foreign ministry said.

SERBIA A group of 100 Serbs have fled Israel via Egypt, ambassador Miroljub Petrovic said on Thursday.

SIERRA LEONE 36 citizens were evacuated to Armenia, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said.

SLOVAKIA The first evacuation flight with 73 people, 25 tourists and five family members of Slovak diplomats working in Tel Aviv arrived in Bratislava on Monday, Slovak authorities said. The foreign ministry said on Friday it would temporarily close its embassy in Tehran and was fully evacuating staff from the country.

SOUTH KOREA Eighteen South Korean nationals and two of their family members who are Iranian nationals were evacuated by land from Iran, South Korea's foreign ministry said.

TAIWAN 36 Taiwanese have been evacuated from Israel via the land crossing with Jordan, while three Taiwanese have left Iran via the land border with Türkiye, Taiwan's foreign ministry said.

UNITED STATES The United States is working to evacuate US citizens wishing to leave Israel by arranging flights and cruise ship departures, US ambassador Mike Huckabee said in a post on X on Wednesday.

VIETNAM Vietnam's foreign ministry told its citizens in Israel and Iran to get ready for evacuation and 18 Vietnamese citizens have already been evacuated from Iran.

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World

Iran Executed 18 Protesters in 2026, Says UN

UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk speaks to the media, at the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) Palais Wilson, in Geneva, Switzerland, Wednesday, June 10, 2026. (Keystone via AP)
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk speaks to the media, at the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) Palais Wilson, in Geneva, Switzerland, Wednesday, June 10, 2026. (Keystone via AP)
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Iran Executed 18 Protesters in 2026, Says UN

UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk speaks to the media, at the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) Palais Wilson, in Geneva, Switzerland, Wednesday, June 10, 2026. (Keystone via AP)
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk speaks to the media, at the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) Palais Wilson, in Geneva, Switzerland, Wednesday, June 10, 2026. (Keystone via AP)

Iran has executed at least 40 people, including 18 protesters, on "national security grounds" since the start of 2026, the United Nations said Monday.

UN rights chief Volker Turk said he felt "deeply for the people in Iran, caught between war and cruel repression".

Since the start of the year, the Iranian authorities "have executed at least 40 people on national security grounds... including 18 protesters", he told the UN Human Rights Council.

Iran executes more people annually than any other nation besides China, according to rights groups.

Turk lamented that Tehran had ramped up repression since a deadly crackdown on protests in January, on top of the Middle East war, sparked in February by US and Israeli attacks on Iran.

He welcomed the announcement on Sunday that the United States and Iran had agreed a peace deal, stressing that "it is clear all sides need to exercise maximum restraint and work to implement the agreement reached, quickly and in good faith".

The conflict, he said, "has had a devastating impact on human rights across the region and around the world".

Repression in Iran was dire even before the war.

In late December, a protest movement sparked by economic pains quickly expanded into mass anti-government rallies, which were met by a crackdown that rights groups say killed thousands.

Iranian authorities portrayed the protests as riots backed by the United States and Israel and said the violence killed around 3,000 people.

Rights groups abroad put the toll higher and accused the security forces of firing at demonstrators.

"Since killing thousands of people during the egregious crushing of protests in January, the authorities have intensified their brutal crackdown, arresting thousands and imposing even more severe restrictions on civic space," Turk said.

World

Congo Reports Record One-Day Increase in Ebola Cases, a Month After Outbreak’s Declaration

Dz'na Lipe Jean‑Marie, secretary of the displacement camp, speaks during an Ebola awareness session as humanitarian agencies intensify efforts to contain a new Ebola outbreak involving the Bundibugyo strain, at Kpangba displacement camp where Ebola cases were observed, Djugu territory in Ituri province, Democratic Republic of Congo, June 13, 2026. (Reuters)
Dz'na Lipe Jean‑Marie, secretary of the displacement camp, speaks during an Ebola awareness session as humanitarian agencies intensify efforts to contain a new Ebola outbreak involving the Bundibugyo strain, at Kpangba displacement camp where Ebola cases were observed, Djugu territory in Ituri province, Democratic Republic of Congo, June 13, 2026. (Reuters)
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Congo Reports Record One-Day Increase in Ebola Cases, a Month After Outbreak’s Declaration

Dz'na Lipe Jean‑Marie, secretary of the displacement camp, speaks during an Ebola awareness session as humanitarian agencies intensify efforts to contain a new Ebola outbreak involving the Bundibugyo strain, at Kpangba displacement camp where Ebola cases were observed, Djugu territory in Ituri province, Democratic Republic of Congo, June 13, 2026. (Reuters)
Dz'na Lipe Jean‑Marie, secretary of the displacement camp, speaks during an Ebola awareness session as humanitarian agencies intensify efforts to contain a new Ebola outbreak involving the Bundibugyo strain, at Kpangba displacement camp where Ebola cases were observed, Djugu territory in Ituri province, Democratic Republic of Congo, June 13, 2026. (Reuters)

Congolese authorities have reported one of the highest increase in Ebola cases in one day, as weak contact tracing, insecurity and funding gaps continue to hinder the response a month after the outbreak was declared.

The Congolese Ministry of Health said Sunday 72 new cases were reported in a 24-hour period, bringing the total number of confirmed cases to 782. This includes 181 confirmed deaths, after 32 new deaths were confirmed.

However, the number of cases in Congo is believed to be higher because the outbreak was confirmed on May 15, weeks after it is suspected to have begun, and the contact tracing coverage rate is at 56%, a sharp decrease from last week.

The latest Ebola outbreak is caused by the rare Bundibugyo virus, which has no approved vaccine or treatment, unlike the Zaire virus, which was responsible for most of Congo’s past 16 outbreaks of the disease.

Fifty-six people have recovered, and the current fatality rate of the outbreak is 23%, the ministry said.

The World Health Organization said Sunday it is intensifying testing and contact tracing and treatment.

Africa's top health body said the same day it is deploying technical expertise and supporting laboratory systems, active case finding and community engagement efforts to accelerate the response to the disease outbreak.

“We remain committed to supporting affected countries until transmission is stopped. We call on partners and donors to urgently mobilize resources to strengthen the response and save lives,” said the head of the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, or Africa CDC, Jean Kaseya.

The outbreak is concentrated in Congo’s eastern province of Ituri, which accounts for more than 90% of the cases. Cases have also been recorded in the North Kivu and South Kivu provinces, and have spread across the border to Uganda.

Nearly a million people have been displaced by conflict in Ituri, according to the UN humanitarian office, making contact tracing difficult as people flee attacks or move frequently in the vast province with dense forests, poor roads and remote villages that can take days to reach.

Tracing is also difficult among the thousands of artisanal miners who regularly move between remote sites in the mineral-rich region.

World

Iran's Fars News Agency Says Hormuz Maritime Fees Added to US Deal Last Minute

Vessels at the Strait of Hormuz, as seen from Musandam, Oman, June 14, 2026. REUTERS/Stringer
Vessels at the Strait of Hormuz, as seen from Musandam, Oman, June 14, 2026. REUTERS/Stringer
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Iran's Fars News Agency Says Hormuz Maritime Fees Added to US Deal Last Minute

Vessels at the Strait of Hormuz, as seen from Musandam, Oman, June 14, 2026. REUTERS/Stringer
Vessels at the Strait of Hormuz, as seen from Musandam, Oman, June 14, 2026. REUTERS/Stringer

Iran's Fars news agency said on Monday, quoting what it said was an informed source, that Tehran added a clause on imposing maritime service fees to the framework deal with the United States shortly before its announcement.

"In the final moments of the negotiations, the text of the memorandum of understanding was amended to clearly and explicitly emphasize the issue of the Iranian-Omani sovereignty over the Strait of Hormuz," said Fars, citing the unidentified source.

"The use of the term 'maritime services' means that the United States has accepted that fees will be paid to Iran," it added.