Americans across the Middle East are scrambling to leave the region after the US state department late on Monday urged US citizens in 14 countries there to depart immediately as the conflict with Iran widens.
Mora Namdar, the US assistant secretary of state for consular affairs, issued the advisory on Monday, urging Americans to “DEPART NOW” from more than a dozen countries, citing “serious safety risks”.
The warning applied to US citizens in Bahrain, Egypt, Iran, Iraq, Israel, the West Bank, Gaza, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Syria, the United Arab Emirates and Yemen.
The BBC estimates that there are between 500,000 and 1 million US nationals living in the Middle East. In her message on Monday, Namdar urged Americans to leave “using available commercial transportation, due to serious safety risks” – and instructed those needing help arranging travel to contact the state department. So far, the US has not organized government evacuation flights.
Since Saturday, US and Israeli forces have carried out large-scale strikes across Iran, including an attack on the compound of Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who was killed in a US-Israeli strike on Saturday. Iran has retaliated, including by launching missiles toward Israeli and US military facilities in the region.
The state department advisory on Monday came as major airlines have canceled flights to and from the region since Saturday, and several airports paused flights and scaled back operations, leaving thousands stranded.
Flight tracking service Flightradar24 said Tuesday that while some repatriation flights have managed to depart the UAE, the “vast majority of flights remain cancelled”, with more than 12,300 cancellations recorded across seven major Middle East airports since the weekend. Meanwhile, prices for private jets in the region have surged.
Many Americans in the region, who have been unable to secure flights, have been sheltering in place, uncertain when they will be able to fly back to the US.
In an interview with MSNOW on Monday, retired US army Maj Gen Randy Manner said he was stranded in Dubai at the moment.
“I was just in transit through the country for work, and with tens of thousands of other people I’m stuck here,” he said.
Manner said that “being here in the UAE and Dubai, the government and the people have been extremely gracious – they have been calm”. He added that they “have been supportive of the tens of thousands of travelers from all nationalities as we are stuck here”.
Manner also expressed frustration that the US had not arranged evacuation flights for its citizens.
“It’s a little bit disheartening as you can probably imagine, as it was announced earlier today by BBC that the British government is going to schedule flights by British air force transport planes to get the UK citizens out, whereas here for the United States, we still have not heard anything through the state department, even though we’re all registered,” he said.
“It feels a little bit disheartening to feel abandoned by our own government.”
He continued: “I’ve talked to two embassies and they, quite frankly, are in survival mode – and I don’t blame them.
“As you can recall, the state department budgets have been reduced by almost half, so they have very limited capability compared to when I was the deputy commanding general in the area – when we would do small-scale evacuation of civilians around the Middle East.”
On Monday, the US Embassy in Saudi Arabia was struck by two drones “resulting in a limited fire and minor material damage to the building”, according to the Saudi Ministry of Defense.
The embassy urged Americans in Jeddah, Riyadh and Dhahran to shelter in place. The US embassy in Kuwait also announced on Tuesday that it would be “closed until further notice”.
Overnight, the US Israeli ambassador Mike Huckabee described options for Americans seeking to leave Israel as “fairly limited”.
Huckabee said that with the airport closed, Americans should “follow the directions of Home Front Command, which are right now to shelter in place, and to be close to a shelter at all times”.
He noted that Israel’s Ministry of Tourism was also providing bus services just across the border in Egypt – and from there “flights could be available”.
The US embassy in Jerusalem said on Tuesday that it was “not in a position at this time to evacuate or directly assist Americans in departing Israel”.
Andy Kim, a New Jersey Democratic senator, wrote in an X post that he used to work at the state department – “and the safety of Americans overseas is the highest responsibility”.
“Warnings to citizens to evacuate 3 days into this war, when airspace is closed, is a clear sign of ZERO strategy and planning by the Trump admin,” Kim’s post said. “Now Americans have limited options.”
On Monday, Donald Trump and his administration signaled that the conflict could intensify and last four to five weeks.
Marco Rubio warned that the “hardest hits” from the US military are still to come. “The next phase will be even more punishing on Iran than it is right now,” the secretary of state said.
Since the strikes began Saturday, six US service members have been killed in action, and 18 have been seriously wounded, according to the Trump administration.
Iran’s Red Crescent has said that at least 787 people there have been killed. Lebanese authorities reported at least 52 people have been killed.
In Israel, authorities said at least 10 people have been killed.
