U.S. Ambassador in Nicosia Ronald Schlicher said Wednesday that in the next few days around 6,000 U. S. citizens evacuated from Lebanon would come to Cyprus.

Schlicher was speaking at Larnaca port as he welcomed to Cyprus over a hundred U.S. citizens who fled Lebanon by the Norwegian vessel "Hual Transporter".

The U.S. ambassador expressed his country's gratitude towards the Republic of Cyprus for the continuous cooperation in the efforts to evacuate U.S. citizens and other foreigners from war- torn Lebanon.

He said that the U.S. Embassy had secured a lot of hotel rooms as well as space in some schools and in the international fair grounds in Nicosia to accommodate American citizens before they go back to the U.S.

U.S. Brigadire-General Carl Jensen, who is in charge of the military evacuation operation for Lebanon, said that the evacuation is "a joint operation and we are using army, air force and marine personnel".

"We hope that by the end of today we will move more than 1,100 American citizens from Lebanon and tomorrow we hope to move approximately 3,000 Americans. We are using ferry vessels to move those people from Lebanon and we are also using USA navy ships which are now in the eastern Mediterranean and of course we will use military aircraft," he said.

Jensen noted that the cooperation with other nations and the cooperation with the government of Lebanon and the government of Cyprus have been "absolutely superb".

"If all goes well we hope that by Friday we will have moved in excess of 6,000 Americans from Lebanon. I want to emphasize the fact that we are not abandoning Lebanon. The Lebanese government has done a magnificent job in Beirut in maintaining security and order. I want to emphasize the grand reception we've had here by the Cypriot people and the government," he noted.

Many western countries are evacuating their nationals from Lebanon through Cyprus either by air or by sea as Israel has imposed a comprehensive blockade on Lebanon since the Lebanese Shiite group Hezbollah captured two Israeli soldiers and killed eight on July 12.

Source: Xinhua