Most Chinese nationals in Iran have been safely evacuated: Chinese embassy
As of Saturday, the vast majority of Chinese nationals in Iran have been safely evacuated, with the remaining few having avoided high-risk areas, said the Chinese Embassy in Iran as reported by the Xinhua News Agency on Sunday evening.
The embassy said it has been closely communicating and cooperating with the Chinese Foreign Ministry and embassies in neighboring countries including Turkey, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan, and Iraq to assist the evacuation since the outbreak of the conflict between Israel and Iran.
The Chinese Embassy in Iran has constantly issued security advisories and self-protection information, proactively contacted Chinese nationals and Chinese enterprises to offer risk avoidance guidance, and maintained close communication with relevant Iranian authorities to provide security protection and facilitate customs clearance for them, said Fu Lihua, minister-counselor of the Chinese Embassy in Iran, Xinhua reported.
According to Fu, the embassy has arranged vehicles to transport Chinese nationals from Tehran and surrounding areas via land border crossings. The embassy staff have been on call day and night to answer assistance calls, assess the number of personnel, maintain contact with Chinese nationals, provide evacuation route guidance, and dispatch personnel to the Bajgiran border crossing between Iran and Turkmenistan to assist with customs clearance.
Fu said that as the situation deteriorated rapidly, the desire among Chinese citizens in Iran to evacuate grew stronger. The embassy quickly organized a total of 17 buses in four batches to evacuate Chinese nationals via land border crossings, and set up working groups at the Astara border crossing between Iran and Azerbaijan, where outbound personnel are concentrated.
The second temporary flight which departed from Turkmenistan and carried 119 Chinese nationals evacuated from Iran has arrived at Beijing Capital International Airport on Sunday morning, Xinhua reported