JEDDAH, 18 September — The Saudi Embassy in Islamabad is gearing up to evacuate its citizens in Pakistan in the event of an emergency situation as the United States prepares for retaliation in the wake of terrorist acts in New York and Washington last week, according to a local newspaper.
“The Saudi Embassy in Pakistan has chalked out a plan to evacuate Saudi citizens in Pakistan. The nearly 700 Saudis residing in the country are mainly officials, their families and students,” Okaz quoted Ali Aseeri, Kingdom’s ambassador to Pakistan, as saying.
“The embassy has taken all necessary precautionary steps, which will guarantee the safety of the citizens both in Islamabad and Karachi,” Aseeri said.
The ambassador also said that a meeting of Saudi officials and school representatives in both cities was held to finalize the safety measures, the newspaper added.
Meanwhile, Saudi Arabian Texaco, operator of the Saudi half of the onshore Neutral Zone, is evacuating families of employees on a voluntary basis from its office in Kuwait, a source close to the operation told Reuters yesterday.
“There is an American presence in the office at Mina Saud in Kuwait,” the source said. “Employees are staying put for now, but wives and children have the option of leaving.”
Major oil companies in the Gulf are brushing off contingency plans and restricting executives’ air travel throughout the region following last week’s terror attacks on Washington and New York.
Chevron, which is in the process of merging with Texaco, for now has no intention of pulling anyone out of Riyadh, industry sources said. “No one is even talking about evacuating from Saudi Arabia,” said a regional source. (AN)
