BELARUS NEWS AND ANALYSIS

DATE:

20/07/2006

Plane with Belarusian evacuees from Lebanon ready to depart

MINSK, July 20 (RIA Novosti) - A plane with more than a hundred Belarusians evacuated from Lebanon is ready to take off from the Syrian capital, the Belarusian Foreign Ministry said Thursday.

The ministry said that a Belarusian airline flight with 160 Belarusians who had asked to leave the conflict zone would depart Damascus later today.

Lebanon's prime minister has said more than 300 have been killed since Israeli missile and air strikes started over a week ago, and hundreds of thousands have been forced to flee. Israelis casualties from attacks mounted by militant group Hizbollah have been put at 29.

Belarus said it was considering arranging a second flight to fly out the remaining evacuees.

The ministry also called for an increase in the number of passengers on regular flights from Tel-Aviv to Minsk, even though it said Belarusians registered with the consulate in Israel had not expressed a desire to leave the country so far.

Source:

http://en.rian.ru/world/20060720/51598034.html