As tensions grow, the United States reduces diplomacy in the Middle East, military presence – state
The State Department and military forces said Wednesday that the U.S. is reducing the presence of staff members who are unlikely to operate on the Middle East and loved ones due to the potential for regional unrest.
The State Department said it has ordered a commitment to “ensure Americans safe at home and abroad.” The embassy already has limited staffing and the order will not affect a large number of personnel.
However, the department also authorized non-essential personnel and families to leave from Bahrain and Kuwait. This gives them the option to leave government expenses and government assistance in these countries.
Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth “has authorized to leave voluntarily from military dependents in the region,” the U.S. Central Command said in a statement. The order “is monitoring development tensions in the Middle East.”
White House spokeswoman Anna Kelly confirmed the move.
“The State Department regularly reviews American personnel abroad, and this decision was made due to recent reviews,” Kelly said.
Global News has asked about the Canadian global affairs whether similar gradual reductions in Canadian diplomats in the region are being carried out.
According to the committee's website, U.S. top military officer Erik Kurilla, will testify before the Senate Armed Forces Committee on Thursday, but the testimony has now been postponed. The Pentagon did not immediately comment on why Currira's testimony was postponed.
Tensions have been intensifying in recent days as dialogue between the United States and Iran on its rapidly moving nuclear program appears to be deadlocked. The negotiations aim to limit Iran's nuclear program in exchange for some broken economic sanctions imposed by the United States on the Islamic Republic. Iran insists that its nuclear program is peaceful.
The next round of talks (round six) is held in Oman this weekend, two U.S. officials said. But the officials said Wednesday that speeches are increasingly unlikely to happen.
President Donald Trump has previously said that if negotiations fail, Israel or the United States can carry out air strikes against Iran's nuclear facilities, his view on a deal with Iran is less incredible, and told the New York Post's “Pod Force One” podcast that he “has become more and more confident in him.”
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“They seem to be delaying, and I think it's shameful. I'm less confident now than I was a few months ago. Something happened to them,” he said in an interview recorded on Monday and released on Wednesday.
Iran’s mission to the United Nations on social media is that “the threat of overwhelming force will not change the facts”.
“Iran is not seeking nuclear weapons, and U.S. militarism will only fuel instability,” the Iran mission wrote.
Iranian Defense Minister Aziz Nasirzadeh told reporters separately on Wednesday that he hopes the talks with the United States will yield results, even though Tehran is ready to respond.
“If conflict is imposed on us, the opponent's casualties will certainly exceed our casualties, and in this case the United States must leave the area because all its bases are within our reach,” he said. “We can access them and we will target them in the host country without hesitation.”
Meanwhile, the IAEA's board of directors may vote on measures to condemn Iran. This could trigger a motion to impose UN sanctions on Iran through a measure in Tehran’s 2015 nuclear deal with world powers until October. Trump withdrew from the deal during his first term.
Earlier on Wednesday, the statement from the British Maritime Trade Action Centre was a Middle East effort overseen by the British Navy, warning that ships in the region “have become aware that increased tensions within the region may lead to escalating military activities that directly affect the water tank.”
It urged caution in the Persian Gulf, Gulf of Oman and Strait of Hormuz. Although these waterways have seen ship seizures and attacks in Iran in the past, it is not named Iran.
Meanwhile, Iraq, state-owned Iraq News Agency, said in a statement attributed to an unnamed government official, that the evacuation of certain unnecessary employees from the U.S. embassy in Baghdad was “part of the procedures related to the U.S. diplomatic operations in many Middle East countries”, not just Iraqi officials, not only Iraqi officials, so no security indicators were recorded.
“We reiterate that all security indicators and briefings support continuous assessment of stability and recovery of internal security,” the statement said.
Gambrell reported on Dubai, the United Arab Emirates. UN AP writer Farnoush Amiri, Washington’s Aamer Madhani and Baghdad’s Qassim Abdul-Zahra contributed to the report.
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