The US State Department has called on all American nationals in the Middle East to leave as soon as possible through commercial means days after tensions in the Middle East escalated, following the US-Israel joint attack on Iran. Assistant Secretary for Consular Affairs, Mora Namdar, issued a list of several locations, including the UAE, Saudi Arabia and Iran, calling on US nationals to leave immediately. Follow LIVE updates on the US Iran war here
Taking to X, Namdar wrote the the State Department and Secretary of State Marco Rubio urges American nationals to “DEPART NOW from the countries below using available commercial transportation, due to serious safety risks.”
The full list of the countries from which Americans have been asked to leave is –
- Bahrain
- Egypt
- Iran
- Iraq
- Israel
- Palestine – Gaza and the occupied West Bank
- Jordan
- Kuwait
- Lebanon
- Oman
- Qatar
- Saudi Arabia
- Syria
- The United Arab Emirates
- Yemen
Americans who require State Department assistance to arrange their departure through commercial means can reach out to on the following phone numbers –
+1-202-501-4444 (from abroad)
+1-888-407-4747 (from the US and Canada).
This warning comes after the US embassies in Kuwait and Saudi Arabia came under attack from Iranian drones as the conflict escalates.
On Monday, smoke was seen rising from the US Embassy vicinity in Kuwait city, prompting embassy officials to issue a warning, asking American citizens to shelter in place and avoid coming to the embassy.
Early Tuesday, Saudi defence officials confirmed that a drone attack on the US Embassy in Riyadh had caused limited damage and a small fire to the building.
The State Department had already issued a Level 4 warning for Iran, Iraq and Lebanon, which called on American nationals to leave immediately.
US, Israel attack Iran
The conflict in the Middle East gravely escalated after the United States and Israel announced a joint military operation against Iran on Saturday. During these strikes, an Israeli raid in Tehran killed the Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
Following Khamenei’s death, Iran has vowed to take revenge and carried out retaliatory strikes across Israel, as well as US military bases in the Middle East, which brought fellow Gulf nations such as Qatar, Iraq, the UAE, Kuwait, Bahrain and Saudi Arabia under Iranian fire.