According to the General Staff of the Armed Forces, an amphibious helicopter carrier equipped with an “onboard battle group” is heading towards Lebanon in case French nationals need to be evacuated.
A French Navy vessel set sail on Monday from the south-east of France to preposition itself off the coast of Lebanon by “precaution”in the event of a need to evacuate French nationals, we learned from the General Staff of the Armed Forces. The French amphibious helicopter carrier (PHA), which will “5 to 6 days” to reach the area in the eastern Mediterranean from the port of Toulon, according to this source, is equipped with helicopters and a “embedded battle group” mobilized in the event of evacuation of French nationals, if this were to be decided.
“We are strengthening our resources to deal with a deterioration of the situation”a senior officer from the army general staff told AFP, specifying that at this stage “there is no question of evacuation of nationals”. The official did not specify the name of the vessel. France has three amphibious helicopter carriers, the Mistralthe Diksmuide and the Thunder. These ships of 21,500 tons and 199 meters long, kinds of “floating ports”are equipped with a hospital, barges, and can accommodate several hundred people in their hangar. In spring, the Thunder had been used to evacuate French nationals from Haiti.
Germany and Washington are also mobilizing
Some 23,000 French or Franco-Lebanese are established in Lebanon. The French embassy has set up a telephone response cell active seven days a week, recalled Monday the Minister of Foreign Affairs Jean-Noël Barrot, traveling to Beirut. Israel, which informed the United States on Monday that it intended to carry out ground operations “limited” targeting Hezbollah in Lebanon according to the US State Department, established a “closed military zone” around three localities in northern Israel bordering Lebanon.
Hezbollah, whose leader Hassan Nasrallah was eliminated Friday in an Israeli strike, promised Monday to continue the fight against the Jewish state and said it “ready” to face a ground operation in southern Lebanon. Faced with the deterioration of the situation and the suspension by many airlines of their flights to Beirut, the United Kingdom announced on Monday the deployment of 700 military personnel to Cyprus to prepare a possible evacuation of its nationals from Lebanon.
Germany, for its part, sent an A321 military plane to Beirut to evacuate personnel “non-essential” of its embassy as well as certain nationals considered vulnerable. Washington has strengthened its military presence in the region, notably deploying the aircraft carrier Harry-Truman.
