The State Department urged all Americans in the Middle East to leave immediately over “serious” safety risks as Iran continues to attack the United States’s Arab allies.
On Monday, the State Department’s assistant secretary for consular affairs, Mora Namdar, said Secretary of State Marco Rubio “urges Americans to DEPART NOW from the countries below using available commercial transportation, due to serious safety risks.” She then provided several resources for people across the Middle East to contact for help with evacuations.
The alert listed: Bahrain, Egypt, Iran, Iraq, Israel, the West Bank, Gaza, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Syria, the United Arab Emirates, and Yemen. Of those listed, only Syria, the Palestinian territories, and Egypt haven’t yet been targeted by Iran, Israel, or the U.S. Cyprus has also been targeted.
After the opening U.S.-Israeli salvos on Saturday morning, Tehran responded by launching volleys of missiles and drones at the U.S.’s Gulf Arab allies and Israel. According to the Wall Street Journal, the Gulf states were targeted because Tehran was betting on making their situation intolerable, pushing them to use their influence in the Trump administration to force an end to the campaign. The actual effect has been the opposite, with the infuriated Arab leaders floating the idea of joining the conflict outright.
The Gulf states all host U.S. troops, but many missiles and drones have instead been aimed at residential areas in the states’ large cities. Bahrain, Qatar, and the UAE have been the worst hit in the first few days. Despite each nation’s advanced air defenses, footage has shown dozens of munitions breaching the umbrella and making contact.
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Tourist hotspots like Dubai have been particularly hard hit by the conflict. Influencers residing in the city flooded social media with videos of drone attacks and missile interceptions from their luxurious apartments.
The evacuation order from the State Department could indicate the acknowledgment of the likelihood of continued attacks or fears that the situation could deteriorate. As with previous conflicts, the order could also reflect U.S. fears of terrorist attacks on civilian targets from Iranian sympathizers, similar to how the U.S. issued an evacuation order for all Americans in Russia ahead of the invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. In both cases, the fears have not materialized so far.
