US pulls embassy staff from Middle East as threats emerge over potential Israel attack on Iran
The
US
ordered some staff to depart its embassy in Baghdad and authorised families of military service members to leave the region, officials said, after
Iran
threatened to strike American bases if it's attacked over its nuclear program.
The decision to reduce staffing in
Iraq
was 'based on our latest analysis,' according to the state department. defence secretary
Pete Hegseth
authorised family members of US military stationed across the region to leave, according to a Pentagon statement.
Neither statement cited a specific threat but the New York Post published an interview in which president
Donald Trump
said he's growing less confident about the prospects for negotiations to impose new limits on Iran's nuclear program. Iran, meanwhile, warned of retaliation against US military assets in the Middle East if the talks collapse and the Islamic Republic is attacked.
'I sincerely hope it won't come to that and that the talks reach a resolution,' Iran's defence minister Aziz Nasirzadeh said in televised remarks. 'But if they don't, and conflict is imposed on us, the other side will undoubtedly suffer greater losses. We will target all US bases in host countries without hesitation.'
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US officials have been told that Israel is ready to launch an operation into Iran, which is part of the reason why the Trump administration advised some Americans to leave the region, CBS News reported on Wednesday evening, citing multiple sources it did not name. The initial report did not offer a time frame for any operation.
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West Texas Intermediate futures surged as much as 5.2% after Reuters reported earlier that the US embassy was preparing for an ordered departure in response to heightened security risks in the region. Iraq is the second-largest OPEC producer.
Earlier in the day, the UK Navy issued a rare warning to mariners that higher tensions in the Middle East could affect shipping, including through the Strait of Hormuz. Shipping has often been risky in the Middle East, but UKMTO, which acts as a liaison between the navy and commercial shipping, rarely puts out general warnings such as this one.
'UKMTO 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,' the advisory said. 'Vessels are advised to transit the Arabian Gulf, Gulf of Oman and Straits of Hormuz with caution.'
The Joint Maritime Information Center, an information sharing hub that comes under the Combined Maritime Forces, warned of heightened risks from the discord, including the possible use of missiles around chokepoints.
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Hormuz is the world's most important oil chokepoint and Iran has frequently threatened to close it during times of geopolitical strife. However, it has never done so.
Hegseth's move applies to family of service members stationed across the US Central Command area of operation, which includes most of the region, according to the statement.
'Centcom is working in close coordination with our Department of State counterparts, as well as our Allies and partners in the region to maintain a constant state of readiness to support any number of missions around the world at any time,' the Pentagon said.
Tehran says it is preparing a fresh proposal regarding its atomic activities before a sixth round in Muscat, the Omani capital, on Sunday. That 'can be used as a basis for work,' Deputy Foreign Minister Majid Takht-Ravanchi said on Tuesday, suggesting Iran is considering a temporary deal that acts as a framework while technical details — many of them highly complex — are worked on.
Trump has consistently said he wants an agreement that curbs Iran's atomic activities and that the US could strike Iran if the talks break down. Israel — which believes a nuclear-armed Iran would pose an existential threat — says it could attack Tehran, with or without US help.
Iran has long denied having plans to build a nuclear weapon. - Bloomberg
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Irish Times
36 minutes ago
- Irish Times
Stocks fall and oil prices hit three year high after Israel strikes Iran
Stocks fell along with equity-index futures and investors rushed to the safety of haven assets after Israel attacked Iran's nuclear program sites in a major escalation of tensions in the Middle East. Crude oil jumped 9 per cent, the biggest move in more than three years. Contracts for the S&P 500 index retreated 1.6 per cent, and a gauge of Asian stocks dropped 1.1 per cent. Treasuries advanced, with the 10-year yield falling one basis point to 4.34 per cent. Gold rose and cryptocurrencies tumbled. A gauge of the dollar rose 0.4 per cent after initially falling, buoyed by the shift to safer currencies even amid recent doubts about the reliability of dollar. The currency had hit a three-year low on Thursday. The airstrikes against Iran's nuclear program and ballistic-missile sites renewed a standoff between the two adversaries that risks spiralling into a wider conflict. READ MORE While the market reaction was strongest in crude oil, moves in other pockets of the market suggested that investors are watching how long the tensions will last and whether the situation escalates. 'We are seeing classical risk-off moves,' said Matthew Haupt, portfolio manager at Wilson Asset Management. 'What we are watching now for is the speed and scale of the response from Tehran. That will shape the duration of the current moves. Quite often these moves fade after the initial shocks.' Israel said the operation will continue for 'as many days' as it takes to remove the threat and Iran vowed to respond 'harshly.' The move came after repeated warnings by Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu about striking Iran and crippling its nuclear program. Iran had previously said it would inaugurate a new uranium-enrichment facility in response to censure by the UN atomic watchdog over its nuclear program. The oil futures curve strengthened on concerns that Israel's latest strike on Iran could have severe and long-lasting repercussions. The most obvious market impact was in oil as Iran is a major exporter of crude to countries such as China and India. Moves in other sectors were more measured as investors braced themselves for the possibility of a steeper selloff. 'This is very serious,' said US-based Kim Forrest, chief investment officer at Bokeh Capital Partners. 'It's surprising the market isn't down more. Do I expect things to get lower in the coming hours? Heck yeah I expect it to be lower by the time I wake up but it'll also depend who's talking and what's happening. US secretary of state Marco Rubio said the US is not involved in the air strikes and that Israel took unilateral action against Iran. The attack is coming at a time when global financial markets had recovered from a slump in April caused by Trump's tariffs. An index of global stocks touched a record Thursday, gaining more than 20 per cent from a low hit in April. The attack is 'poised to echo through global markets — not just as a geopolitical flashpoint, but more as a stark wake-up call,' said Hebe Chen, an analyst at Vantage Markets in Melbourne. 'Investors now have to face the mounting threat of multi-front tensions, where potential new hot wars and intensifying trade wars collide, reshaping risk sentiment in real time.' Separately, officials at the Bank of Japan see prices rising a little stronger than they expected earlier in the year, a factor that may open the door to discussions over whether to raise interest rates if global trade tensions ease, according to people familiar with the matter. The officials expect the central bank's benchmark interest rate to be left at 0.5 per cent at the end of a two-day gathering next week as they need to monitor developments in tariff talks globally and their economic implications, the people said. – Bloomberg
Irish Times
an hour ago
- Irish Times
Israel attacks Iran: Where are Iran's nuclear sites and does it have nuclear weapons?
Israel said early on Friday it had struck Iranian nuclear targets to block Tehran from developing atomic weapons. Iranian media and witnesses reported explosions including at the country's main uranium enrichment facility. Israeli prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu said the strikes are aimed at hurting Iran's nuclear infrastructure, ballistic missile factories and military capabilities. Where are Iran's nuclear facilities? Iran's nuclear programme is spread over many locations. While the threat of Israeli air strikes has loomed for decades, only some of the sites have been built underground. READ MORE Does Iran have a nuclear weapons programme? The United States and the UN nuclear watchdog believe Iran had a co-ordinated, secret nuclear weapons programme that it halted in 2003. The Islamic Republic denies ever having had one or planning to have one. [ Israel launches attacks on Iran sparking fears of all-out war Opens in new window ] Iran agreed to restrictions on its nuclear activities in exchange for relief from international sanctions under a 2015 deal with world powers. That pact fell apart after Donald Trump - then serving his first term as president - pulled the United States out of it in 2018 and Iran started abandoning the restrictions in the following year. Is Iran increasing its uranium enrichment? Yes. Iran has been expanding its uranium enrichment programme ever since the pact broke down, reducing the so-called 'breakout time' it would need to produce enough weapons-grade uranium for a nuclear bomb to days or little more than a week from at least a year under the 2015 deal. Actually making a bomb with that material would take longer. How long is less clear and is the subject of debate. Iran is now enriching uranium to up to 60 per cent fissile purity, close to the 90 per cent of weapons-grade, at two sites, and in theory it has enough material enriched to that level, if enriched further, for six bombs, according to a yardstick of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the UN watchdog. Natanz Netanyahu said on Friday that Israel had targeted Natanz as part of its attack. It is a complex at the heart of Iran's enrichment programme on a plain abutting mountains outside the Shia Muslim holy city of Qom, south of Tehran. Natanz houses facilities including two enrichment plants: the vast, underground Fuel Enrichment Plant (FEP) and the above-ground Pilot Fuel Enrichment Plant (PFEP). An exiled Iranian opposition group revealed in 2002 that Iran was secretly building Natanz, igniting a diplomatic standoff between the West and Iran over its nuclear intentions that continues today. The FEP was built for enrichment on a commercial scale, able to house 50,000 centrifuges. Some 16,000 centrifuges are currently installed there, roughly 13,000 of which are in operation, refining uranium to up to 5 per cent purity. Diplomats with knowledge of Natanz describe the FEP as being about three floors below ground. There has long been debate about how much damage Israeli air strikes could do to it. Damage has been done to centrifuges at the FEP by other means, including an explosion and power cut in April 2021 that Iran said was an attack by Israel. The above-ground PFEP houses only hundreds of centrifuges but Iran is enriching to up to 60 per cent purity there. Fordow On the opposite side of Qom, Fordow is an enrichment site dug into a mountain and therefore probably better protected from potential bombardment than the FEP. The 2015 deal with major powers did not allow Iran to enrich at Fordow at all. It now has about 2,000 centrifuges operating there, most of them advanced IR-6 machines, of which up to 350 are enriching to up to 60 per cent. The United States, Britain and France announced in 2009 that Iran had been secretly building Fordow for years and had failed to inform the IAEA. US president Barack Obama said then: 'The size and configuration of this facility is inconsistent with a peaceful programme.' Isfahan Iran has a large nuclear technology centre on the outskirts of Isfahan, its second-largest city. It includes the Fuel Plate Fabrication Plant and the uranium conversion facility that can process uranium into the uranium hexafluoride that is fed into centrifuges. Iran also stores enriched uranium at Isfahan, diplomats say. There is equipment at Isfahan to make uranium metal, a process that is particularly proliferation-sensitive since it can be used to devise the core of a nuclear bomb. The IAEA has said there are machines for making centrifuge parts at Isfahan, describing it in 2022 as a 'new location'. Khondab Iran has a partially built heavy-water research reactor originally called Arak and now Khondab. Heavy-water reactors pose a nuclear proliferation risk because they can easily produce plutonium which, like enriched uranium, can be used to make the core of an atom bomb. Under the 2015 deal, construction was halted, the reactor's core was removed and filled with concrete to make it unusable. The reactor was to be redesigned 'to minimise the production of plutonium and not to produce weapon-grade plutonium in normal operation'. Iran has informed the IAEA that it plans to start operating the reactor in 2026. Tehran research centre Iran's nuclear research facilities in Tehran include a research reactor. Bushehr Iran's only operating nuclear power plant, on the Gulf coast, uses Russian fuel that Russia then takes back when it is spent, reducing the proliferation risk. – Reuters
Irish Times
an hour ago
- Irish Times
Israel attacks Iran's nuclear sites in major attack
Israel attacked Iran 's capital Tehran early on Friday in strikes that targeted the country's nuclear programme and raised the potential for an all-out war between the two bitter Middle East adversaries. It appeared to be the most significant attack Iran has faced since its 1980s war with Iraq, with multiple sites around the country hit. The leader of Iran's paramilitary Revolutionary Guard was killed, Iranian state television reported. Another top Guard official, as well as two nuclear scientists, were also feared dead. The chief of staff of the Iranian armed forces, Gen Mohammad Bagheri, was also confirmed dead by Iranian state television. READ MORE Israeli leaders said the attack was necessary to head off what they described as an imminent threat that Iran would build nuclear bombs and they warned of a reprisal which could target civilians in Israel. [ UN nuclear watchdog says Iran is in breach of negotiations ] [ Where are Iran's nuclear sites and does it have nuclear weapons? Opens in new window ] Supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei warned 'severe punishment' would be directed at Israel. In a statement carried by the state-run IRNA news agency, he said Israel had 'opened its wicked and bloodstained hand to a crime in our beloved country, revealing its malicious nature more than ever by striking residential centres'. In Washington, the Trump administration, which earlier cautioned Israel against an attack amid continuing negotiations, said it had not been involved in the attack and warned Iran against retaliations against US interests or personnel. Multiple sites in the capital were hit in the attack, which Israeli prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu said targeted both nuclear and military sites. Also targeted were officials leading Iran's nuclear programme and its ballistic missile arsenal. A partial view of a destroyed apartment in a building targeted by an Israeli strike on the Iranian capital Tehran early on Friday morning. The assault came amid warnings from Israel that it would not permit Tehran to build a nuclear weapon, although it remains unclear how close the country is to achieving that. Mr Netanyahu said in an address on YouTube that the attacks will continue 'for as many days at it takes to remove this threat'. 'It could be a year. It could be within a few months,' he said as he vowed to pursue the attack for as long as necessary to 'remove this threat'. 'This is a clear and present danger to Israel's very survival.' The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) confirmed an Israeli strike hit Iran's uranium enrichment facility at Natanz and said it was closely monitoring radiation levels. Iranian authorities later informed the IAEA that the Bushehr nuclear power plant had not been targeted. The attack followed increasing tensions that led the US to pull some diplomats from Iraq's capital and to offer voluntary evacuations for the families of US troops in the wider Middle East. US secretary of state Marco Rubio said Israel took 'unilateral action against Iran' and that Israel advised the US that it believed the strikes were necessary for its self-defence. Debris from an apartment building is seen on top of parked cars after a strike in Tehran, Iran, early on Friday. Photograph: AP 'We are not involved in strikes against Iran, and our top priority is protecting American forces in the region,' Mr Rubio said in a statement released by the White House that warned Iran against targeting US interests or personnel. The attack comes as tensions have reached new heights over Tehran's rapidly advancing nuclear programme. The board of governors at the IAEA censured Iran on Thursday for the first time in 20 years over its refusal to work with its inspectors. Iran immediately announced it would establish a third enrichment site in the country and swap out some centrifuges for more-advanced ones. Israeli defence minister Israel Katz said his country carried out the attack, without saying what it targeted. 'In the wake of the state of Israel's preventive attack against Iran, missile and drone attacks against Israel and its civilian population are expected immediately,' he said in a statement. The statement added that Mr Katz 'signed a special order declaring an emergency situation in the home front'. 'It is essential to listen to instructions from the home front command and authorities to stay in protected areas,' it said Both Iran and Israel closed their airspace. – AP and Reuters
