Trump calls Middle East ‘a dangerous place’ as US evacuates embassy staff

Washington: The United States is drawing down the presence of staffers who are not deemed essential to operations in the Middle East and their loved ones due to the potential for regional unrest.

The US State Department said it had ordered the departure of all non-essential personnel from the US embassy in Baghdad based on its latest review and a commitment “to keeping Americans safe, both at home and abroad”. The embassy already had been on limited staffing, and the order will not affect a large number of personnel.

US President Donald Trump said America would not allow Iran to have a nuclear weapon.Credit: NYT

The department, however, also is authorising the departure of non-essential personnel and family members from Bahrain and Kuwait. That gives them the option of leaving those countries at government expense and with government assistance.

The decision by the US to evacuate some personnel comes at a volatile moment in the region. Trump’s efforts to reach a nuclear deal with Iran appear to be deadlocked and US intelligence indicates that Israel has been making preparations for a strike against Iran’s nuclear facilities.

Iran, meanwhile, has warned it would retaliate against US bases in the Middle East if any failure of nuclear talks led to conflict.

US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth “has authorised the voluntary departure of military dependents from locations” across the region, US Central Command said in a statement. The command “is monitoring the developing tension in the Middle East”.

Speaking at the Kennedy Centre in Washington on Wednesday evening (Thursday AEST), US President Donald Trump said, “They are being moved out because it could be a dangerous place, and we’ll see what happens. We’ve given notice to move out, and we’ll see what happens.”

Tensions in the region have been rising in recent days as talks between the US and Iran over its rapidly advancing nuclear program appear to have hit an impasse. The talks seek to limit Iran’s nuclear program in exchange for the lifting of some of the crushing economic sanctions that the US has imposed on the Islamic Republic. Iran insists its nuclear program is peaceful.

The next round of talks – the sixth – had been tentatively scheduled for this weekend in Oman, according to two US officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss diplomatic matters. However, those officials said on Wednesday that it looked increasingly unlikely that the talks would happen.

Trump, who has previously said Israel or the US could carry out airstrikes targeting Iranian nuclear facilities if negotiations failed, gave a less-than-optimistic view about reaching a deal with Iran, telling the New York Post’s “Pod Force One” podcast that he was “getting more and more less confident about” a deal.

The US embassy is seen from across the River Tigris in Baghdad, Iraq.Credit: AP

“They seem to be delaying, and I think that’s a shame. I’m less confident now than I would have been a couple of months ago. Something happened to them,” he said in the interview recorded on Monday and released on Wednesday.

Iran’s mission to the United Nations posted on social media that “threats of overwhelming force won’t change the facts”.

“Iran is not seeking a nuclear weapon, and US militarism only fuels instability,” the Iranian mission wrote.

Iranian Defence Minister General Aziz Nasirzadeh separately told journalists on Wednesday that he hoped talks with the US would yield results, though Tehran stood ready to respond.

President Donald Trump was asked about the MIddle East personnel departures as he attended a performance of Les Misérables in Washington late on Wednesday with first lady Melania Trump.Credit: AP

“If conflict is imposed on us, the opponent’s casualties will certainly be more than ours, and in that case, America must leave the region, because all its bases are within our reach,” he said. “We have access to them, and we will target all of them in the host countries without hesitation.”

Meanwhile, the Board of Governors at the International Atomic Energy Agency was potentially set to vote on a measure to censure Iran. That could set in motion an effort to snap back UN sanctions on Iran via a measure in Tehran’s 2015 nuclear deal with world powers that’s still active until October. Trump withdrew from that agreement in his first term.

Earlier on Wednesday, a statement from the United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations centre, a Mideast-based effort overseen by the British navy, issued a warning to ships in the region that it “has been made aware of increased tensions within the region which could lead to an escalation of military activity having a direct impact on mariners”.

It urged caution in the Persian Gulf, the Gulf of Oman and the Strait of Hormuz. It did not name Iran, though those waterways have seen Iranian ship seizures and attacks in the past.

General Michael Kurilla, pictured in 2021.Credit: AP

The top US military officer for the Middle East, General Erik Kurilla, was scheduled to testify before the Senate Armed Services Committee on Thursday, but that testimony has now been postponed, according to the committee’s website. The Pentagon has not commented on the postponement.

Meanwhile, Iraq’s state-run Iraqi News Agency said in a statement attributed to an unnamed government official that the evacuation of some non-essential employees from the US embassy in Baghdad was part of “procedures related to the US diplomatic presence in a number of Middle Eastern countries, not just Iraq” and that Iraqi officials “have not recorded any security indicators that warrant an evacuation”.

“We reiterate that all security indicators and briefings support the escalating assessments of stability and the restoration of internal security,” the statement said.

Analysts are debating possible motives for personnel moves, The New York Times reported. Some think the US and Britain might be trying to intimidate Iran, or were responding with alarm to Tehran’s statements.

Some also wondered whether US and British officials were reacting to a heightened chance that Israel would attack Iran. Trump has said he does not want Israel to take military action that could disrupt his efforts to broker a nuclear deal with Tehran.

Britain’s Foreign Office said it was monitoring the situation and would keep its embassy in Iraq under constant review following the US moves.

The US embassy in Kuwait said in a statement on Wednesday that it “has not changed its staffing posture and remains fully operational”.

Another US official said there was no change in operations at Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar, the largest American military base in the Middle East, and that no evacuation order had been issued for employees or families linked to the US embassy in Qatar, which was operating as usual.

Iraq’s state news agency cited a government source as saying Baghdad had not recorded any security indication that called for an evacuation.

Iraq – a rare regional partner of both the US and its arch regional foe, Iran – hosts 2500 American troops, though Tehran-backed armed factions are linked to its security forces.

Tensions inside Iraq have heightened since the start of the war in Gaza in October 2023, with Iran-aligned armed groups in the country repeatedly attacking US troops, though attacks have subsided since last year.

Israel and Iran also twice exchanged fire last year – the first ever such direct attacks between the region’s most entrenched enemies – with missiles and war drones hurtling across Iraqi airspace.

Israel has also struck Iran-linked targets across the region, including Iraqi armed groups operating both inside Iraq and in neighbouring Syria.

In recent months, the US had deployed more military assets in the Middle East, including B-2 bombers, which have since been replaced, and extending the deployment of a second aircraft carrier, which has since departed.

AP, Reuters

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