Northern Macedonia forms crisis headquarters for evacuation of citizens from Middle East

The Northern Macedonia Ministry of Foreign Affairs has formed a crisis headquarters, which will have competencies for the evacuation of Macedonian citizens from the Middle East if needed.

This decision has been made following the Iranian attack on Israel with fears and rockets in the early hours of April 14th.

Israel has said that it and its allies have brought down most of its fears and missiles.

Foreign Affairs Minister Bujar Osmani said on Sunday that evacuation of citizens of Northern Macedonia would depend on the airport's work at Tel Aviv, which reopened in the morning.

Second possible evacuation route is across Jordan.

At the crisis headquarters are the same members that were at headquarters in October last year for the evacuation of Macedonian citizens from Israel, following Hamas' attacks by the Palestinian group declared terrorist by the United States and the European Union on Israeli soil on 7 October.

Osman added that there are between 40 and 50 citizens in Israel, including family and diplomatic personnel at Tel Aviv.

“I call on all citizens of northern Macedonia in Israel to be in constant communication with our embassy at Tel Aviv, while the MPJ service phones in northern Macedonia are available, Osmani said.

Unfortunately, warnings of escalation of the situation in the Middle East have become true. Any violence is punishable, whether by Israel, Iran, or Hamas. We condemn all actions, as we condemned the previouss, and as we will condemn the next revenge attacks that have been warned”, the Macedonian diplomacy chief said.

He called on state president Stevo Pendarovski to call the Security Council meeting due to the risk of escalation, and to activate the Balkan migration route.

President Pendarovski's cabinet reportedly does not need to meet the Security Council at the moment.

President Stevo Pendarovski is in communication with our NATO partners. The situation is being monitored carefully and is currently estimated to have no threat to the security of North Macedonia”, the Northern Macedonia presidency's communique says. / REL