As speculation of impending war in Iran circulates, the State Department and the U.S. Embassy in Jerusalem have told nonessential staff they can leave Israel.
Those who wish to leave “should do so TODAY,” Ambassador Mike Huckabee said in an email to staff first reported by The New York Times.
The embassy’s move “will likely result in high demand for airline seats today,” he said in the email. “Focus on getting a seat to anyplace from which you can then continue travel to DC, but the first priority will be getting expeditiously out of country.”
The State Department also authorized nonemergency U.S. government personnel and their family members to leave Israel “due to safety risks.”
The State Department announced the U.S. Embassy in Israel “may further restrict or prohibit U.S. government employees and their family members from traveling to certain areas of Israel, the Old City of Jerusalem, and the West Bank.”
Shortly before the U.S. carried out airstrikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities last year, Huckabee similarly told American citizens wanting to leave Israel that the embassy was working on evacuation options. Four days later, Operation Midnight Hammer took place on June 22.
On Thursday, Vice President JD Vance promised that there’s “no chance” the U.S. will end up in a “Middle Eastern war for years with no end in sight.” Vance said he still sees himself as a “skeptic of foreign military interventions.”
“I think we all prefer the diplomatic option,” Vance told The Washington Post aboard Air Force Two. “But it really depends on what the Iranians do and what they say.”
According to ABC, Navy Adm. Brad Cooper, who heads U.S. Central Command in the Middle East, briefed President Donald Trump on Thursday on potential military options against Iran.
Iran and the U.S. held six hours of negotiations in Geneva, Switzerland, on Thursday, but the meeting ended without a deal.
“As president, I’ll make peace wherever I can, but I will never hesitate to confront threats to America wherever we must,” Trump said in his Tuesday night State of the Union address.