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TROUBLE Brewing In Middle East — Emergency Evacuations of U.S. Personnel Ordered, Iranian Strikes Could Be Imminent

It looks like something big is beginning to unfold in the Middle East…

The State Department has ordered emergency evacuations of all non-essential personnel at multiple embassies across the region — including in Iraq and Baghdad.

Reportedly, things are drastically heating up with Iran.

Here’s what we know so far:

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News of widespread evacuations comes after Iran’s Defense Minister threatened to strike U.S. bases amid stalled nuclear negotiations.

CNBC has more details:

The United States is preparing a partial evacuation of its Iraqi embassy and will allow military dependents to leave locations around the Middle East due to heightened security risks in the region, U.S. and Iraqi sources said on Wednesday.

The four U.S. and two Iraqi sources did not specify which security risks had prompted the decision and reports of the potential evacuation pushed up oil prices by more than 4%.

“The State Department regularly reviews American personnel abroad and this decision was made as a result of a recent review,” White House spokeswoman Anna Kelly told Reuters when asked about reports of the partial evacuations, without giving further details.

A White House official said U.S. President Donald Trump was aware of the move.

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The partial evacuations come at a moment of heightened tensions in a region already aflame after 18 months of war in Gaza that has raised fears of a wider conflagration pitting the U.S. and Israel against Iran and its allies.

Trump has repeatedly threatened to strike Iran if stuttering talks over its nuclear programme fail and in an interview released on Wednesday he said he was growing less confident that Tehran would agree to stop enriching uranium, a key American demand.

Iranian Defence Minister Aziz Nasirzadeh also said on Wednesday that if Iran was subjected to strikes it would retaliate by hitting U.S. bases in the region.

The United States has a military presence across the major oil-producing region, with bases in Iraq, Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates.

U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has authorized the voluntary departure of military dependents from locations across the Middle East, a U.S. official said. Another U.S. official said that was mostly relevant to family members located in Bahrain — where the bulk of them are based.

“The State Department is set to have an ordered departure for (the) U.S. embassy in Baghdad. The intent is to do it through commercial means, but the U.S. military is standing by if help is requested,” a third U.S. official said.

Iraq’s state news agency cited a government source as saying Baghdad had not recorded any security indication that called for an evacuation.

The Associated Press reported the State Department was also authorizing the departure of nonessential personnel and family members from Bahrain and Kuwait. The U.S. embassy in Kuwait said in a statement it “has not changed its staffing posture and remains fully operational.”

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Another U.S. official said that there was no change in operations at Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar, the largest U.S. military base in the Middle East and that no evacuation order had been issued for employees or families linked to the U.S. embassy in Qatar, which was operating as usual.

Rumors are also swirling that that Israel is ready to hit Iran, and the U.S. is preparing for potential retaliation.

Per CBS News:

U.S. officials have been told Israel is fully ready to launch an operation into Iran, multiple sources told CBS News.

The U.S. anticipates Iran could retaliate on certain American sites in neighboring Iraq. This is part of the reason the U.S. advised some Americans to leave the region earlier Wednesday. The State Department ordered non-emergency government officials to exit Iraq due to “heightened regional tensions,” and the Pentagon has authorized military family members to voluntarily leave locations throughout the Middle East, a defense official told CBS News.

President Trump’s Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff is still planning to meet with Iran for a sixth round of talks on the country’s nuclear program in the coming days, two U.S. officials said.

While at a performance of Les Miserables at the Kennedy Center tonight, President Trump confirmed that American personnel are being moved out of regions in the Middle East because it “could be a dangerous place.”

Very notably, he also stated clearly that “Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon, we won’t allow it.”

This comes after President Trump has repeatedly warned Iran that they will be hit if they won’t come to terms with a nuclear deal.

Watch his full response here:

President Trump’s deadline for Iran to agree to a nuclear deal is set to expire this week.

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Per Axios:

Between the lines: Trump set a two-month deadline for a deal with Iran that expires this week.

  • He has long warned the alternative to a deal would be conflict, and Israel has been preparing to strike Iran’s nuclear facilities in the event talks fail.
  • For now, Trump has continued to say he would prefer a deal and believes he can get one.
  • Iran’s mission to the UN said Wednesday that diplomacy is “the only path forward” and that “threats of ‘overwhelming force’ won’t change facts: Iran is not seeking a nuclear weapon, and U.S. militarism only fuels instability.”

President Trump also responded to another reporter’s question this evening about the evacuation of U.S. military families in the Middle East:

Things are looking very serious, indeed…

We’ll keep you updated on further developments as they come through.

What do you think is going on here?

Will there be war with Iran?
Thoughts?


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