208 Japanese Evacuated from Qatar amid Iran Tensions

Tokyo, March 9 (Jiji Press)–Japan’s Foreign Ministry said Monday that 208 Japanese nationals have been evacuated from Doha, the capital of Qatar, to Riyadh by land amid the growing conflict between U.S.-Israeli forces and Iran. The evacuees, along with Japanese nationals who fled from Kuwait and Bahrain to Riyadh, will return home, if they wish, on a Japanese government-chartered flight departing from the Saudi Arabian capital. The flight is slated to arrive at Narita International Airport in Chiba Prefecture, east of Tokyo, on Tuesday morning. “We will do our best to safeguard Japanese nationals (in the Middle East) while considering the needs among them and the local situation,” Chief Cabinet Secretary Minoru Kihara said at a press conference Monday. The government has arranged overland evacuations for Japanese nationals in Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates, who have faced difficulties leaving the countries due to the closures of international airports there amid the escalating tensions over Iran. Evacuees from the four countries have been transported to either Riyadh or the Omani capital of Muscat, and would be sent back to Japan on flights chartered by the government. On Sunday, 84 people from Kuwait and nine from Bahrain arrived in Riyadh. Meanwhile, 90 people who were evacuated from the UAE to Muscat and Japanese residents in Oman arrived at Narita from the Omani capital on Sunday on the first chartered flight in the government’s evacuation operations. END [Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]