The Minister of Defense, Margarita Robles, has confirmed that Spain will send two planes from the Spanish Air Force towards Beirut this Thursday to carry out the evacuation of Spaniards in Lebanon.
This was announced in an interview on Espejo Público on Antena 3, reported by Europa Press, where she detailed that the evacuation operation is ready, and there are about 350 Spanish citizens in Lebanon who have expressed their desire to be repatriated to Spain.
"Everything is ready, obviously Spain and the Spanish government have never left any Spanish citizen behind, we did it in Afghanistan, we have done it in Niger, we have done it in Sudan, and we will do it in Lebanon, but everyone is aware of the airspace situation. The Spanish planes are ready, the crews are prepared," she explained.
The Spanish consular services had registered 960 Spaniards residing in Lebanon, mostly individuals with dual nationality. Since tensions escalated between Lebanon and Israel last week, consular action has focused on monitoring the status and location of Spaniards through phone calls, as well as inquiring about their plans to leave the country.
Until last Tuesday, October 1, the Embassy urged citizens to purchase tickets for commercial flights. The issue was that only Middle East, the local airline, is still operating at Beirut airport. In fact, there are no scheduled flights to Madrid until October 9.