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The U.S. Embassy in Beirut is repeating its warnings for American citizens to avoid traveling to Lebanon over increasing security threats, as the conflict between Hezbollah and Israel on Lebanon’s southern border intensifies.
In a security alert posted Thursday, the U.S. Embassy reminded American citizens “to strongly reconsider travel to Lebanon,” saying the security environment “remains complex and can change quickly.”
The embassy points out that the “Lebanese government cannot guarantee the protection of U.S. citizens against sudden outbreaks of violence and armed conflict,” and warns Americans from traveling to southern Lebanon, the Lebanon-Syria border area or refugee settlements.
John Kirby, the White House national security communications adviser, deferred to the State Department on Wednesday when asked about whether the U.S. would issue a similar warning, but said the U.S. is working to limit fighting between Hezbollah and Israel.
“We’re trying to prevent an escalation of this conflict that certainly would put the people of Israel and of Lebanon at greater physical risk than the risk that is already being incurred by them, particularly those that live near the Blue Line,” he said, referring to the U.N.’s term for the boundary between Lebanon and Israel.