Jakarta. The first Indonesian flights evacuating its citizens from Iran would land in Jakarta on Tuesday, according to Chief Security Minister Budi Gunawan. 

Indonesia recently ordered the evacuation of its citizens from the warring Iran and Israel. As many as 96 Indonesians had left Iran using land routes via Azerbaijan. There were 93 Indonesian civilians, three embassy staff, and an Iranian national, all of whom had set foot in the Azerbaijani capital Baku, as of Saturday. The Iranian in question is the spouse of one of the Indonesian evacuees. 

Work is now underway for the Indonesians in Baku to finally be able to fly home. Budi said that these evacuees’ arrivals would take place in batches. The first round will have 29 people, who the government has assigned to three different commercial flights. They will depart from Iran on Monday, although Budi did not say at what time their flights will take off.

“[This first batch of people] will arrive in Jakarta on June 24 [Tuesday] evening. The government will keep tabs on the latest developments to carry out the next evacuation processes,” Budi said on Monday.

The senior minister also did not say when the next group of evacuees would fly home.

Foreign Minister Sugiono recently met his Azerbaijani counterpart Jeyhun Bayramov on the sidelines of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) talks in Istanbul. Sugiono also took the opportunity to thank Azerbaijan for helping with the evacuation process.

Four Indonesians had also left Israel via the land crossing with Jordan.

About 386 Indonesians were residing in Iran, many of whom were studying in the country’s metropolis, Qom. About 194 Indonesians were in Israel, according to the government's data published before the evacuation orders. 

The evacuation took place amid even heightened tensions as the US launched strikes on three Iranian nuclear facilities. 

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