Arab Tourists in Beirut: Picture from ArabianBusiness
The United Arab Emirates and Qatar on Saturday urged their citizens to avoid travel to Lebanon, where clashes linked to the conflict in neighbouring Syria have left 10 people dead. “The UAE foreign ministry has urged citizens not to travel to Lebanon until the tense security situation there is cleared,” it said in an English-language statement carried on state news agency WAM.
Kalbani also called on “citizens currently in Lebanon to leave the country, and in case they have to stay back for any unavoidable reasons, to contact the UAE embassy in Beirut” to give their whereabouts and contact details. [Link]
You can’t really blame them for warning their citizens, specially with everything that’s been happening in the past week or so. Added to that, it comes at the worst possible time whereas the summer season is about to kick in. Our Prime Minister Najib Mikati urged them to reconsider their warnings arguing that the security situation is good. On the other hand, Tourism Minister Fadi Abboud stated “Qatar and the United Arab Emirates didn’t officially issue a travel restriction advisory for their nationals.”
Indeed, the situation in Tripoli is great and all websites are lying.