US withdraws some diplomats and military families from Middle East amid Iran tensions
The U.S. State and Defense departments on Wednesday made efforts to arrange the departure of non-essential personnel from locations around the Middle East, according to U.S. officials and sources familiar with the efforts.
It’s not clear what is causing the sudden change in posture, but a defense official said U.S. Central Command is monitoring “developing tension in the Middle East.”
“They are being moved out because it could be a dangerous place, and we’ll see what happens. But they have been or we’ve given notice to move out, and we’ll see what happens,” President Donald Trump told reporters Wednesday upon arriving at a Kennedy Center event.
On Thursday, the U.S. embassy in Israel issued a security alert restricting government staff and their families from traveling outside of Tel Aviv, Jerusalem and Be’er Sheva until further notice, and warned all U.S. citizens in Israel to exercise “caution and increase personal security awareness.”
While the reasons for the heightened security concerns in the region are not clear, the planned departures come as tensions involving Iran and Israel have recently escalated as the Trump administration continues to pursue a new nuclear deal with Iran.
Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth has authorized the voluntary departure of military dependents from locations across the Middle East, according to the official.
“The safety and security of our service members and their families remains our highest priority and U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) is monitoring the developing tension in the Middle East,” the official said. Gen. Michael Kurilla, the CENTCOM commander, postponed testimony he was due to give in front of a Senate committee on Thursday due to the tensions, a defense official said.
The State Department is also preparing to order the departure of non-essential personnel from the U.S. embassies in Iraq, Bahrain and Kuwait due to increased security risks in the region, according to a separate U.S. official and another source familiar with the matter.
A departure of non-essential personnel will also be ordered for the U.S. consulate in Erbil, in Iraqi Kurdistan, the sources said. An Iraqi government official said the personnel movements had nothing to do with the security posture in his country.
“President Trump is committed to keeping Americans safe, both at home and abroad. In keeping with that commitment, we are constantly assessing the appropriate personnel posture at all our embassies. Based on our latest analysis, we decided to reduce the footprint of our Mission in Iraq,” a State Department official said when asked about the change in posture.
Later on Wednesday the department updated its to add that the departure of non-emergency U.S. government personnel “due to heightened regional tensions” had been ordered.
Trump has said he’s grown less confident in being able to strike a deal with Iran curbing the country’s nuclear ambitions, saying in a new interview that Tehran could be “delaying” striking an agreement.
“I’m getting more and more less confident about it. They seem to be delaying, and I think that’s a shame, but I’m less confident now than I would have been a couple of months ago,” Trump said in an interview with a New York Post podcast that was released earlier on Wednesday.
“Something happened to them, but I am much less confident of a deal being made,” he went on, saying it was his “instincts” telling him a deal was moving further from reach.
CNN also reported Wednesday that Trump told Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to stop talk of an attack on Iran, according to a source familiar with the conversation.
The two leaders spoke on the phone on Monday. Trump later said the call went “very well, very smooth.”
Last month, CNN reported the U.S. had obtained new intelligence suggesting that Israel was making preparations to strike Iranian nuclear facilities, according to multiple U.S. officials familiar with the latest intelligence. Two intelligence sources said the U.S. had observed indications of Israeli military posturing, including the movement of air munitions and the completion of an air exercise.
Though officials cautioned it’s not clear that Israeli leaders had made a final decision and said there was deep disagreement within the U.S. government about the likelihood that Israel will ultimately act.
Iran’s defense minister warned Wednesday that if the nuclear talks with the U.S. fail and conflict breaks out, the U.S. would be “forced to leave the region.”
Brigadier General Aziz Nasirzadeh said that in such a scenario “the adversary will certainly suffer heavier casualties,” though he did not specify whether the “adversary” was the U.S., Israel or both.
In his comments published by Iran’s state-run IRNA news agency, the defense minister said some officials from the opposing side had “made threatening remarks, warning of potential conflict in case no agreement is reached” in the U.S.-Iran talks.
“In that case, the U.S. will have no choice but to leave the region, as all of its bases are within the reach of Iranian military and they will not hesitate to target all of them in their host countries,” Nasirzadeh said.