90 Japanese Citizens Evacuated From Iran-Israel To Azerbaijan And Amman Countries

JAKARTA - About 90 Japanese nationals and their families were safely evacuated from Israel and Iran to neighboring countries in response to rising tensions in the Middle East.

Japanese Foreign Minister Takeshi Iwaya said 66 people who left Iran arrived safely in the capital city of Azerbaijan, Baku, and 21 people from Israel arrived safely in Amman, Jordan's capital.

The Japanese government plans to evacuate the second phase by bus from Iran at the earliest on Saturday, June 21.

"We will continue to monitor the situation with accuracy and take all possible measures to protect Japanese citizens," Iwaya said, reiterating Japan's strong condemning of the Israeli and Iranian counter-attacks as reported by CNN, Friday, June 20.

Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba stressed the importance of diplomatic efforts to calm the situation.

Ishiba said earlier this week that the summit of Group 7'Iran should not be allowed to develop nuclear weapons.