US urges citizens to leave more than a dozen Middle Eastern countries immediately | Conflict news

A State Department official said the latest advisory included Egypt, Israel, Saudi Arabia and Qatar.

The US Department of State has urged all Americans to immediately leave more than a dozen countries in the Middle East, including Saudi Arabia and Qatar, amid escalating US-Israeli attacks against Iran.

Monday’s warning comes after the State Department recently updated its travel advisories to recommend against travel to several regional countries.

The latest advice applies to Bahrain, Egypt, Iran, Iraq, Israel, the occupied West Bank and Gaza, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Syria, the United Arab Emirates and Yemen.

In a statement posted on X, the State Department’s assistant secretary for consular affairs, Mora Namdar, said U.S. citizens should “depart immediately” from the listed countries using available commercial transportation “due to serious security risks.”

The US Embassy in Amman, Jordan, announced on Monday that its staff had left the diplomatic site “due to threats”.

Al Jazeera’s Patty Culhane, reporting from Washington, DC, said a State Department official noted the unusual nature of the announcement on social media.

“The State Department is referring us to a tweet from the Assistant Secretary of State and it’s not necessarily official policy — but maybe they’re saying it’s official policy — that’s how it’s usually done,” Culhane said.

“It’s really, really weird. I can’t say I’ve ever seen anything like this in my long time covering Washington,” he said.

“How can this not be done. The State Department has very complex processes to inform Americans in these places that they need to leave. That hasn’t happened. It’s not official government policy, at least it doesn’t appear to be yet, because it’s not how they declare official government policy,” Culhane added.

“It’s not clear what that means, and how the Americans can leave the entire Middle East because commercial traffic is so disrupted because of all the missiles,” he said.

“It’s going to be a very big question, especially for all Americans in the Middle East”.

On Saturday, the US and Israel launched strikes against Iran, killing several top officials, including Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

Tehran retaliated with strikes of its own across the region.

US President Donald Trump said on Monday that the conflict is expected to last four to five weeks, but that it could go on longer.