With no end in sight for the Lebanese crisis, more than 600 Saudi students have already left the country since fighting broke out earlier last week, said Iqab Al-Mutairi, head of citizens' affairs at the Saudi Embassy in Beirut. There has been no report of vandalized properties owned by Saudis as of now, he said. There is, however, still an undetermined number of Saudis, including students, in Lebanon who have decided to stay amid a deteriorating security situation, he said. The Saudi ministry of higher education has sponsored students to study in Lebanon as part of the Custodian of the Tow Holy Mosques Scholarship Program. “The ministry is worried about its students in Lebanon and is coordinating with the Cultural Attaché in the Saudi Embassy in Beirut to bring them back,” said Abdullah Al-Nasir, general supervisor of cultural attachés at the ministry. Many students, however, have returned home at the request of their families. Earlier this week, Saudi Ambassador to Lebanon Abdulaziz Khoja said all Saudi citizens in the country were safe and that no one had been injured, the Saudi Press Agency reported. The Saudi Embassy in Damascus has currently been receiving Saudi citizens coming from Lebanon across the Lebanese-Syrian border fleeing the heavy fighting, embassy officials said on Saturday. – Okaz __
