Brazilian Foreign RelationsMinister Celso Amorim will fly to the Turkish port
city of Adana on Wednesday, to coordinate the effort to evacuate Brazilian
citizens from Lebanon, government spokesman Andre Singer said on Tuesday.
The minister was participating in World Trade Organization negotiations in
Geneva, Switzerland.
On Monday, Amorim was engaged in diplomatic effort to obtain a guarantee from
Israel that bus convoys transporting Brazilians from Lebanon to Syria would not
be targeted by the Israeli forces.
On Tuesday, 309 Brazilian citizens were evacuated by bus from the Bekaa
Valley, where 90 percent of the Brazilians in Lebanon concentrated. Another 20
buses evacuating Brazilians from Lebanon are expected to arrive in Damascus by
Wednesday.
Because of the risk of attacks, it took convoys 14 hours to arrive in Syrian
capital, Damascus, from the Bekaa Valley near theSyrian border. The usual
journey before the conflict takes one anda half hours.
Two commercial planes with 202 seats each will be leaving from Damascus to
Brazil on Wednesday and Thursday.
A government plane carrying 80 citizens evacuated from Lebanon arrived
Tuesday morning in Brazil. Brazilian authorities plan to evacuate a total of
1,500 Brazilians from the conflict area by theend of this week.