US reduces staffers in Middle East as tensions rise

Perth Now

a day ago

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 State Department and military say.
The State Department said it has 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.
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.
Defense 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".
Tensions in the region have risen 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 - is tentatively scheduled for this weekend in Oman, but US officials said it looked increasingly unlikely that the talks would happen.
President Donald Trump, who has previously said Israel or the US could carry out air strikes 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.
"They seem to be delaying, and I think that's a shame ... Something happened to them," he said in the interview recorded on Monday.
Iran's mission to the UN 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.
"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.
Earlier, 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 did not name Iran, though those waterways have seen Iranian ship seizures and attacks in the past.