US to partially evacuate embassy in Iraq over security threats

The non-essential staff of the United States Embassy and their dependents in Baghdad must be evacuated from Iraq due to increased security risks, sources of the US government said.

The officials have not said exactly what has caused the withdrawal, however, in recent days, discussions on the Iranian nuclear program seem to have blocked.

An official of the US State Department declared on Wednesday at the BBC: “We constantly assess the posture of the personnel appropriate to all our embassies.

“Based on our latest analysis, we decided to reduce the imprint of our mission to Iraq.”

This decision comes after weeks of talks between the United States and Iran – President Trump hoped to conclude an agreement to prevent Tehran from developing a nuclear weapon.

Trump said on Wednesday that it became less confident than Iran would stop enriching uranium.

Earlier this week, he also owned a 40 -minute telephone call – which would be “tense” – with the Israeli Prime Minister, who has long pleaded for a military approach rather than diplomatic.

Asked Wednesday evening on the decision to evacuate the staff of several parts of the Middle East, Trump said: “Well, they are moved because it could be a dangerous place, and we will see what is going on.”

He added: “But they were – and we pointed out to move, and we will see what is going on.”

With nuclear talks at a critical moment, it is not yet clear to what extent the American announcement is to report as opposed to a real concern.

But the Iranian Minister of Defense, Aziz Nasirzadeh, said that his country would retaliate against the American bases in the region if the talks have failed and that Trump has ordered military strikes against the Islamic Republic.

The reuters news agency reports that the American defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, has also approved the voluntary departure of families of American military personnel from the Middle East countries, notably Kuwait and Bahrain.

On Wednesday in front of a panel of the congress, the Pentagon said that he thought there was “many indications” that Iran “was heading for something that would look a lot like a nuclear weapon”.

Iran affirms that its uranium enrichment program is intended for the production of civil energy and that it does not try to build an atomic bomb.

Also on Wednesday, the organization of UK maritime operations – part of the Royal Navy – issued a warning saying that an increase in military tensions in the Middle East could affect shipping.

The price of oil initially increased by more than 4% when the news of the American evacuation broke out, in anticipation of regional insecurity leading potentially to supply problems.

According to the Ministry of Defense, around 2,500 American troops are based in Iraq.

Additional reports from Tom Bateman to Washington