By Eric Nicolson and Paul Reoch

A COUPAR Angus mother yesterday spoke of her relief that her daughter has arrived in Britain from war-torn Beirut.

But Mrs Christine Itani said last night she will have to wait until later today to see her daughter.

By the time Joumana flew into Gatwick there were no more flights north so she was forced to spend the night in a local hotel.

Christine said, “She managed to borrow a telephone at Gatwick and told me that she couldn’t get back to Scotland tonight as there were no more flights. I told her to go to a hotel and to let me know what flight she’ll be on tomorrow. Hopefully it will be early in the morning.

“Obviously I’m so relieved that she’s back in the country and it’s been a long couple of days. I’m just out of Ninewells Hospital so I won’t be able to drive to pick her up so I think I’ll have to go to the airport by taxi.

“She’ll be very tired but I can’t wait to see her again.”

Mrs Itani was relieved to receive a phone call from Joumana (26) at 2.30am yesterday to let her know that she had arrived at Limassol, Cyprus, after boarding a Royal Navy warship in Beirut.

Joumana is a nursery nurse who works in Lebanon, and her mother had been anxiously waiting for word on her.

“It was such a relief to hear from her—I was desperate for some word,” Mrs Itani told The Courier yesterday. “She phoned me at 2.30am to say she had arrived in Limassol and was being repatriated and would hopefully be coming home today.”

And while her daughter has fled the troubled zone, Mrs Itani said that her son Noureddine (32) had left for Syria with the aim of landing in Australia.

“Noureddine is an embryologist who has clinics in Beirut, Damascus and Tartus, which is just over the border in Syria,” she said.

He planned to head for Syria with wife Faye and sons Hisham (5) and Khaled-Alexander (4).

His wife and children have Australian passports so will travel there and Noureddine hopes to then return to Beirut.

Mrs Itani’s husband, Hisham (known locally as Hamish), is still in Beirut at Noureddine’s house, which she said is near the sea so should be one of the less targeted areas.

Mrs Itani last night said Noureddine was now in Syria “as far as I’m aware” and his family were travelling to Australia.