U.S. Cuts Embassy Staff as Iran Threats Raise Stakes

The State Department is reducing staffing at U.S. embassies in Jordan, Lebanon, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates after intelligence indicated that Iran had increased efforts to target U.S. personnel. The embassies will stay open, but state officials will decide who works there and who must leave.

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi warned that “any further escalation around the Strait of Hormuz or elsewhere in the region will put civilian lives and the well-being of all regional states and the global economy at great risk.” His warning comes as a regional conflict disrupts the U.S. economy and pushes up energy costs.

Who Controls the Mission

In a memo sent Friday to Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Director of National Intelligence Jay Clayton wrote that U.S. teams “have received intelligence that Iran has substantially increased efforts to target U.S. personnel.” Clayton added: “The lethal plotting efforts by the Iranians against U.S. citizens have reached advanced stages in both the Middle East and certain other countries.” The Associated Press obtained the memo; Axios had reported on it earlier.

The four embassies have “restricted operations” status, which had already reduced their personnel footprints. Staff in Jordan, Lebanon, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates aren't required to leave. Saudi Arabia is different: officials ordered nonessential U.S. personnel and their families to depart Wednesday.

Restricted Operations Status gives the State Department more leeway to make personnel decisions without publicly announcing a change in a mission’s status. A U.S. official said the department “constantly evaluate[s] new information about the security environment.” The official said Houthi attacks and Iranian plots targeting U.S. officials were shaping staffing adjustments.

This week, the State Department cited increased threats from Yemen's Houthi rebels but didn't mention direct Iranian threats to U.S. personnel. Officials later said threats from Iran and the Iranian-backed Houthis were related to the staffing changes. Three U.S. officials, speaking anonymously because of the matter's sensitivity, confirmed that the memo went to Rubio in his roles as secretary of state and national security adviser.

The Costs Beyond the Embassy

Washington also ordered non-emergency government employees and family members to leave U.S. diplomatic missions in Saudi Arabia and planned to withdraw family members from some other missions, U.S. officials told Reuters. On Saturday, the department updated travel advisories for more than a dozen Gulf and Middle Eastern countries, including Saudi Arabia, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Iraq and Israel, citing increased threats from Iran-aligned Houthis.

The regional fighting has brought missile and drone strikes against Saudi Arabia. On Saturday, the Saudi-led coalition said it destroyed two ballistic missiles that the Houthis fired toward Taif and Yanbu. Reuters reported that Houthi attacks on one front of the conflict coincided with increased attacks on commercial shipping in the Strait of Hormuz.

Iran's Revolutionary Guard navy threatened to strike U.S. military bases in the region if the United States continued helping guide commercial ships through the Strait, a critical waterway for global energy trade. Brent crude futures climbed above $116 a barrel as tensions rose, while U.S. West Texas Intermediate rose 3.8% to settle above $103 a barrel. Voters deciding control of Congress have made inflation and affordability top concerns.

Security Decisions and Election Politics

The war has raised U.S. energy costs and created political problems for President Donald Trump and Republicans seeking to retain control of Congress in the November 3 midterm elections. Reuters said the conflict had weighed significantly on Trump's approval ratings. U.S. officials denied that embassy drawdowns were tied to possible new U.S. and Israeli strikes on Iran.

At a Florida rally Friday, Trump touted U.S. operations in Iran, dubbed “Operation Epic Fury,” and said: “we may do another little Epic Fury, or they'll agree. If they're smart, they'll just say, 'Let's get down to business.'” Mediators have tried to bring Washington and Tehran back to formal talks as the war reaches a stalemate.

On Saturday, an Iranian official told the Associated Press that Tehran remained open to talks under a Pakistan-brokered deal agreed to in June. Reza Amiri Moghadam, Iran's ambassador to Islamabad, said Iranian officials were prepared to reopen the Strait of Hormuz if the Trump administration lifted its naval blockade, but Washington had rejected the proposal. Iranian state media later denied the report. The election contest carries its own political stakes; meanwhile, governments far from those facing the economic consequences control embassy staffing, military threats and the blockade.