India Is Evacuating Lebanese From Afghanistan

India Evacuates Lebanese From Afghanistan
EPA-EFE

Lebanon thanked India on Sunday for evacuating a Lebanese national from Afghanistan after the Taliban took over the South-Asian country.

Caretaker Foreign Minister Zeina Akar expressed gratitude for the move in a statement on Sunday, in which she praised India’s efforts to evacuate Lebanese national Mohammad Khattab.

Khattab, who works at Trempplin, a subsidiary of the Afghanistan-based Indian company Oracle, was evacuated alongside Indian nationals and flown to New Delhi aboard a military plane.

The Lebanese citizen’s evacuation is the outcome of “the valuable efforts made by the Lebanese Embassy in India and the Lebanese Embassy in Pakistan,” Akar said.

In this context, Akar also thanked both embassies, as well as the Pakistani authorities, for helping get Khattab to safety.

Afghanistan has been witnessing mass evacuations of people of various nationalities over the past week after the Taliban claimed the country’s capital in a swift takeover, as the United States plans its military withdrawal.

The U.S. has set a deadline of August 31st for withdrawal from Afghanistan, but President Joe Biden has stated that American troops may stay past that date to help carry out more evacuations in the future.