The Canadian government and Cyprus have agreed on emergency evacuation procedures in the event that lives are threatened due to the escalating situation in the Middle East, it emerged on Tuesday.

According to Agence France-Presse, the Canadian armed forces have proactively transferred resources to Cyprus, so as to be able to quickly evacuate the country’s nationals should commercial flights be disrupted.

The evacuation agreement, published on the Canadian government website, was made last week on August 6, between the foreign ministers of the two states.

Foreign Minister Constantinos Kombos said Cyprus is ready to implement the Estia evacuation plan any minute, and all necessary measures are in place in case citizens need to be evacuated from Lebanon.

Procedures to be followed in the event it becomes necessary to evacuate Canadians via Cyprus were outlined in a letter sent by Kombos to his Canadian counterpart Mélanie Joly.

The minister further proposed for the two states to establish a more comprehensive agreement on the matter, as the recent one covers only the current situation, per practices followed by the Republic since 2020.

In her response, the Canadian foreign minister accepted Kombos’ proposal to reach an extended agreement.

Currently, beds and toiletries have been placed in schools across Larnaca to welcome citizens in case Lebanon is evacuated.

“All necessary action is taking place in terms of accommodation and strengthening our ability to provide temporary accommodation until citizens’ departure to countries of citizenship,” Kombos said on Tuesday.

Asked how many people Cyprus could accommodate, Kombos said in 2006, the number reached 60,000.

“Therefore, we can welcome large numbers if they depart and don’t stay for too long.”

Asked if Canada had struck a deal with Cyprus to evacuate its citizens from Lebanon, Kombos reiterated that all actions to implement Estia are in place, in the same humanitarian manner which unfolded in 2006 and 2023 during the crisis in Sudan.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Monday urged his country’s citizens to immediately depart Lebanon, citing the extremely dangerous situation in the Middle East.

The US government, also on Monday, warned that Iran could launch a “significant attack” on Israel this week, in retaliation for the assassination in Tehran of Ismail Haniyeh, a senior Hamas leader, who was killed on July 31.

“We see that the risk of escalation is real,” Trudeau said at a press conference. “We’re encouraging and asking all Canadians to please leave Lebanon while there are commercial routes available.”
According to estimates, around 20,000 Canadians are currently in Lebanon. Canada had issued an advisory against travel to Lebanon since June, citing “volatile and unpredictable” conditions with the possibility of violence between Hezbollah and Israel flaring up without warning.

According to reports, Cyprus has received evacuation inquiries from at least ten countries, including Britain.

According to The Telegraph, the situation in the Middle East is considered so dire that the army is preparing for an evacuation operation comparable in scale to the evacuation of British citizens from Kabul during the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan in 2021.

On Friday night, government spokesman Konstantinos Letymbiotis said that recent movement of ships and aircraft in Cyprus was part of the island’s humanitarian role , countering the narrative that they were part of the island getting drawn into supplying resources to Israel.

A protest was held on Friday night after a US assault ship – the US navy’s USS Wasp – docked in Limassol, with opposition party Akel slamming the government for consenting to the ship’s presence and warning that the move was dangerous for the island.

The government spokesman, however, assured that heightened movements were part of the ‘Estia’ plan, preparations for which were ongoing, to facilitate the evacuation of third-country nationals through Cyprus.

In its own statement, the defence ministry also said the increased activity from “forces of friendly countries” observed recently in Cyprus, exclusively concerns the country’s humanitarian role.

Earlier this week, the ministry issued a brief statement that Cypriot and US military forces would carry out training exercises in Nicosia’s flight information region (FIR).

Government sources clarified the British bases took no part in this exercise.