NICOSIA, 19 July 2006 — Cyprus, itself a victim of war more than three decades ago, has once again opened its ports and airports to help evacuate thousands of Lebanese and foreign nationals from the war- torn neighboring country.

As Israeli gunships and aircraft pounded Beirut’s airport and seaport along with major highways out of the Lebanese capital, the Cyprus government pledged to provide every assistance to foreign and Lebanese nationals seeking shelter on the island.

A senior government spokesman said that visa applications for Lebanese living in Europe and wishing to travel to Cyprus would be relaxed, reminiscent of the days during Lebanon’s 15-year civil war, when the port towns of Limassol and Larnaca were dubbed Little Lebanon.

Gone are the days when high street boutiques would have signs in Arabic, and every restaurant waiter would utter the occasional greeting of Assalamu Alaikum and recite the day’s menu in Arabic or French, while offering free servings of Arak, the aniseed spirit similar to the Greek ouzo.

Some of the few who stayed or married locally rushed to help Cyprus authorities with translations, while foreign governments are seeking bilingual or even trilingual speakers to assist at the ports and airports.

The sleepy port of Larnaca, where the occasional cargo ship would anchor once a week, has come back to life. It is bustling with military and commercial ships and now has docked an Italian navy ship, which brought 483 Italians, Cypriots and others late Monday night, most of whom were bussed to nearby Larnaca airport to catch relief flights home.

Anchored in the next berth is a Greek navy ship, its captain monitoring Olympic Airways flights from the Syrian cities of Damascus and Latakia to Larnaca and on to Athens.

The nearby airport has a few stranded Middle East Airlines jets parked just off the runway as the area starts to be crowded by civilian and camouflage carriers emblazoned with government seals, almost like a mini-NATO convention.

The French government chartered the 1,200-passenger Greek ferry Iera Petra, which arrived yesterday morning in Larnaca with French and Swiss nationals on board and later return to Beirut to shuttle more stranded Europeans. Nayiri Mouradian - originally from Lebanon but married in Cyprus for two decades — was quoted by the local website Gibrahayer as saying: “We were contacted by the Cypriot consul, who arranged for us to gather at the Greek Embassy on Thursday evening. From then on it was a long drive to the Syrian border, and everyone was scared because the Israeli bombing had not stopped.”

“For people who have not gone through this kind of experience it was very scary. My sons did not stop asking questions throughout the journey. They were frightened but relieved on arrival,” she said after arriving at Larnaca airport on board a Cyprus Airways flight.

An 80-member Australian folk dance group of the Hamazkayin Armenian society opted to drive over the mountains and through Syria to Jordan to catch a rescue flight from Amman.

Others sought to escape over land, but seven Canadian nationals and tens of other Lebanese lost their lives despite driving clearly marked mini-buses.

The United States airlifted non-essential citizens Sunday from Beirut to Larnaca using a squadron of Marine CH-53 helicopters, while a commercial cruise ship will help evacuate more US citizens.

Even the British Royal Navy has dispatched its aircraft carrier HMS Illustrious from Gibraltar to help evacuate British citizens, while the amphibious assault ship HMS Bulwark is reported to be on its way to the area as a precaution.

The European Union has urged Israel to guarantee the safety of its citizens in Lebanon, as many crowded outside their embassies in Beirut, desperately looking for a way home. But that is all Brussels can do, stopping short of telling Israel to stop its shelling.

For now the, EU is evacuating its citizens to Cyprus, the closest it can call home and a safe destination, despite being just 240 kilometers off Lebanon’s bombed coastline.

With many roads impassable and the airport disabled, European and other governments are resorting to chartering ships to pull their nationals out of the Lebanese capital and off to Cyprus to get final transport home.

Once on Cyprus soil, the island’s people are determined to repeat their warm hospitality and assistance, which brought Lebanese and Cypriots closer together in the last two decades.