Brazil's Ambassador in Lebanon Vieira Vargas said on Wednesday that there are still 1,001 Brazilians waiting to return home from the Middle East.

Of them, 449 have been evacuated from Lebanon to Damascus, Syria, and 246 to Adana, Turkey. They are waiting for flights to take them back to Brazil.

Another 306 Brazilians are still in Lebanon, of whom 240 are in Beirut and 66 in the Bekaa Valley, said Vargas.

According to the ambassador, 2,250 Brazilians have left Lebanon since Israel began to assault Lebanon to avenge a Hezbollah cross-border attack on July 12. As many as 1,426 of them were evacuated by airplanes arranged by the Brazilian government and Brazil's airlines.

Another flight carrying 150 Brazilian evacuees from Lebanon will be arriving in Sao Paulo, Brazil's largest city, on Thursday morning.

Brazil's Ministry of Foreign Relations is negotiating with state-owned oil and gas giant Petrobras, hoping that it would provide domestic airline companies TAM and Gol with fuel to sponsor their participation in efforts to bring Brazilians home from the conflict area.

Source: Xinhua