The United States has called on its citizens to immediately leave Israel, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and other Middle Eastern countries as Iran escalates military attacks in the region.
“The @SecRubio @StateDept urges Americans to DEPART NOW from the countries below using available commercial transportation, due to serious safety risks.
“Americans who need State Department assistance arranging to depart via commercial means, CALL US 24/7 at +1-202-501-4444 (from abroad) and +1-888-407-4747 (from the U.S. and Canada),” the U.S. assistant secretary Mora Namdar said in an X post Monday.
Other Middle Eastern countries the State Department urged Americans to leave immediately are Bahrain, Iran, Iraq, the West Bank, Gaza, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Oman, Syria, and Yemen.
Iran has fired several missiles at U.S. bases in Gulf countries, including Saudi Arabia, after the U.S. and Israel launched deadly airstrikes on Iran, killing the country’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and some of his regime officials.
At least 40 members of Mr Khamenei’s regime were killed in airstrikes over the weekend.
Meanwhile, President Donald Trump says the current armed conflict with Iran could run for four weeks.
“From the outset, it was assumed that it would take about four weeks,” Mr Trump said in a telephone interview with the British newspaper Daily Mail on Sunday. “It’s a big country; it’ll take four weeks—or less.”
Three U.S. soldiers have been killed and five others seriously injured in the U.S. military operation against Iran.
Iran’s counterattacks have hit U.S. military bases in the Gulf region and other targets.
Mr Trump praised the soldiers who were killed as “great people.”
“And, you know, we expect that to happen, unfortunately. Could happen continuously – it could happen again,” he added.
Eyal Zamir, the chief of staff of the Israeli military, gave a similar assessment late on Sunday, saying that Israel recorded “significant achievements” in Iran over the first 48 hours, but “many more days of fighting lie ahead”.
