Beirut – A cruise ship sailed into Beirut late Tuesday to begin shuttling thousands of Americans to safety from Mideast fighting amid fierce criticism that the U.S. effort had lagged behind Europe’s.
The commander of the Fifth Fleet said the ship would begin boarding evacuees at dawn, but there was no sign shortly after sunrise that the operation had begun.
“We’re trying to move quickly, trying to move large numbers of people as fast as we can,” said Vice Adm. Patrick Walsh, the top U.S. naval officer in the Middle East. A larger commercial vessel also would be used, he said. A Pentagon spokesman said the U.S. government was considering hiring as many as four more cruise ships to carry Americans.
Thousands of Europeans already have fled the country.
Earlier in the day, U.S. Ambassador Jeffrey Feltman paid a lightning visit to the Beirut harbor dock where evacuees, including about 320 Americans, were boarding a Norwegian cargo ship that usually transports cars.
Feltman said that more than 1,000 Americans would depart today and that the evacuation’s slow start was intended to safeguard Americans.
“We at the embassy don’t have the experience to move a lot of people,” Feltman said. “Luckily, the U.S. government does. Security and safe travel were what’s on our minds.”
An estimated 8,000 of the 25,000 Americans in Lebanon have filed paperwork to leave.
European countries began moving hundreds of their citizens to Cyprus on Monday. Nearly 1,000 were on a Swedish-chartered ship that left Beirut on Tuesday, and a British warship and Greek frigate transported nearly 600 of those countries’ nationals away from Lebanon.
The Orient Queen, the ship that docked late Tuesday, was carrying a number of Lebanese passengers, and “we needed to do some coordination” to allow them to pass through the Israeli naval blockade of Lebanon, Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman said.
Outside the gates of the U.S. Embassy, Californian Elie Kawkabani, who lives in Beirut, was angry about the delay.
“The embassy is providing us with sketchy information, and they are being rude to us here at the gate,” he said. “We have other options, like leaving through Syria, but they keep stringing us along day after day.”
White House spokesman Tony Snow said the United States has determined it was not safe to travel by road, adding: “We understand the anxieties of people in Lebanon.”
After criticism from Congress, the State Department dropped plans to ask Americans to pay for rides on commercial vessels. They were charging the price of a single commercial flight from Beirut to Cyprus – usually $150 to $200.
The Boston Globe contributed to this report.
