France and Italy urge citizens to leave Lebanon due to security risks

PARIS/MILAN (Reuters) -France and Italy on Sunday urged their citizens in Lebanon to leave the country due to the risk of military escalation in the Middle East, their foreign ministries said.

Tensions have soared following the assassination of Ismail Haniyeh, leader of Palestinian group Hamas, in Tehran on Wednesday, a day after an Israeli strike in Beirut killed Fuad Shukr, a top military commander from Lebanese armed group Hezbollah.

In two separate travel advisories, the French foreign ministry recommended citizens residing in Iran to temporarily leave the country given the risk of its airspace being closed. The ministry had urged citizens travelling in Iran to leave on Friday.

The ministry called on its citizens in Lebanon, especially those on trips there, to take advantage of the fact that there are still commercial flights available to leave.

Italy’s Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani on X urged Italians temporarily in Lebanon not to travel at all to the south of the country and to return to Italy as soon as possible by commercial flights, “given the deteriorating situation”.

“We also call on Italian tourists not to travel to Lebanon,” he added.

Air France said on Saturday it and its affiliate Transavia were further extending their suspensions of flights between Paris and Beirut until at least Aug. 6.

French Foreign Minister Stephane Sejourne and U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken shared their concern over rising frictions in the Middle East in a phone call on Saturday.

(Reporting by Leigh Thomas and Gianluca Semeraro; Additional reporting by Chandni Shah in Bengaluru; Editing by Elaine Hardcastle and David Holmes)