JUANA SUMMERS, HOST:
Israel's airstrikes in Lebanon have forced more and more people from their homes. The government estimates over 1 million people have fled within the country. The U.S. State Department is urging American citizens in Lebanon to leave the country altogether. In fact, the U.S. State Department posted a giant red banner at the top of their website that reads in part, quote, "U.S. citizens in Lebanon - we continue to advise that U.S. citizens depart Lebanon due to the unpredictable nature of ongoing conflict."
Rena Bitter is the Assistant Secretary for Consular Affairs at the U.S. State Department, and that's a job that includes ensuring the safety of U.S. citizens overseas. She joins us now. Welcome.
RENA BITTER: Thank you, Juana. I appreciate the opportunity to talk to your listeners.
SUMMERS: Rena, I just want to start off with some basics if we can. Can you just give us a sense of roughly how many American citizens are in Lebanon and what assistance is on offer to them?
BITTER: Yeah, I'll start with the second part, Juana. I'll talk a little bit about what we're doing to assist U.S. citizens and how many American citizens we're in touch with. So we're working really hard on behalf of U.S. citizens to make sure that they are able to access departure from Lebanon and to give them as many opportunities to remain safe as possible.
The most important thing to note is that the airport - the commercial airport - remains open, and flights are still available. One of the things that we have been doing for American citizens is to work with the airlines to block seats for U.S. citizens on flights out of Lebanon on the commercial carrier. We've also - because we know that those opportunities might be limited, we've also organized U.S. government flights for people to depart as well - for American citizens and family members to depart to safe locations. And between those two things, the flight - the seat blocking and the flights that we have organized, we've increased availability for American citizens to depart by about 1,800 seats in just the last few days.
One thing I should mention is that we still have a lot of capacity on these flights. Many of them are going out not full. So we hope that U.S. citizens in Lebanon will get in touch with us and take advantage of it, and I'll tell you a little bit how to do that in just a second. I want to mention one other thing...
SUMMERS: Right.
BITTER: ...That we're doing in Lebanon, which we've never done before, which is we are offering loans.
SUMMERS: Rena, I think the connection's a little choppy. I heard you say there that you were...
BITTER: Yeah.
SUMMERS: ...Offering loans to people. I want to get to the first part of the question, though, 'cause our time is short. Do you have a sense...
BITTER: Yes.
SUMMERS: ...Of how many American citizens are in Lebanon, roughly?
BITTER: Right. We are in touch with about 8,000 Americans, a little bit more, who are seeking our assistance - some to depart, but not all to depart - and I did mention these loans.
SUMMERS: Right.
BITTER: And we want American citizens to leave, but we recognize that some of them may choose to stay, and this is an opportunity for them to be able to...
SUMMERS: OK.
BITTER: ...Get through some challenging times.
SUMMERS: Rena, is an evacuation, such as the one that the United States had from Afghanistan back on 2021, on the table at this point?
BITTER: You know, as I mentioned at the beginning, the commercial airport is open, and there are - there's commercial aviation flying. That's a very safe way for people to leave Lebanon. We want to make sure Americans stay safe and take advantage of that open airport as long as it's available. And it is available.
If I could, Juana, I'd like to mention how people can get in touch with us.
SUMMERS: Sure.
BITTER: As you say, there is a banner at the top of the travel.state.gov website. If you click on that, it'll give you an opportunity to fill out a crisis intake form. We hope American citizens in Lebanon will fill that out so we can be in touch with them. Their family members in the United States can also fill it out on their behalf.
SUMMERS: OK. We've talked about these flights a bit, and you've mentioned both those government flights and the seat blocking that the government is doing, but a number of politicians here in the United States, including the governor of Michigan, have written to the State Department - called on the State Department to do more. They've raised concerns about the high cost of some of those flights. What do you say to that?
BITTER: Thanks for the opportunity to address that. We've seen reports that there are - some of the flights are priced exorbitantly. We've looked into this. The national carrier that we're working with, where we are blocking seats - the price that they're charging just the same as it was prior to this crisis. We are asking Americans to fill a promissory note for their spot on these flights. It is also a very low price. We've seen no evidence of price gouging. So I hope that folks who are listening will understand that, to the extent that that has been an issue in the past...
SUMMERS: OK.
BITTER: ...It certainly isn't now, and it's not an obstacle for Americans to leave.
SUMMERS: We've got about 45 seconds left here, so I do want to ask you, there have been reports of Americans being killed in these strikes. Are you able to share any more information about that or the status, generally, of Americans who are still in the country?
BITTER: Right. As I said, you know, we're in touch with about 8,000 Americans who are seeking various types of information, whether it is to depart or for these loans or just to get more information. We are aware of an American citizen who was killed just the other day. We've been in touch with their family, and we're offering assistance to them.
SUMMERS: We've been speaking with Rena Bitter, assistant secretary for consular affairs at the U.S. State Department. Thank you.
BITTER: Thank you. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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