- US warns staff of advanced Iranian attack plots.
- Embassies reduce staffing levels due to heightened threat.
- Iran threat level highest; plots extend globally.
The US government has placed its employees across the Middle East on heightened alert and begun reducing staffing levels at embassies and consulates amid intelligence indicating that Iran is in the advanced stages of planning attacks against Americans, US officials said on Friday.
Intelligence officials sent a memo to Secretary of State Marco Rubio warning of the threats to State Department employees in the Middle East and other regions.
The memo, written by Director of National Intelligence Jay Clayton, said US agencies had received intelligence indicating that Iran had substantially stepped up efforts to target American personnel. It warned that Iranian plots to kill US citizens had reached advanced stages in the Middle East and other countries, New York Times reported.
The Trump administration confirmed the memo on Friday night through a US official. The move underscored the seriousness with which Washington is treating the threat. Axios had earlier reported on the memo.
Iran Threat To Americans At Highest Level Since War Began
US agencies assess that the threat to Americans in the Middle East and several other countries is at its highest level since the war began in February, officials said.
President Donald Trump and his senior aides have been receiving regular briefings on the growing threats, which extend beyond the Middle East, a US official said. Analysts have examined intelligence concerning threats to American officials, including ambassadors, over the past three weeks.
Some intelligence suggests Iran may have operatives in the United States, while Iranian plans also include potential targets in Europe, officials said.
However, another US official cautioned that Iran’s ability to carry out attacks in the United States and other overseas locations remains limited, with its ambitions to strike exceeding its operational capabilities.
The White House did not respond to a request for comment. Clayton’s office and the Central Intelligence Agency declined to comment.
US Adjusts Embassy Staffing
The State Department said it continually assesses new information about the security environment when deciding staffing levels at US embassies.
A US official said the threat of attacks by Yemen’s Houthi forces and alleged Iranian plots targeting American officials were among the factors informing staffing adjustments. Many diplomatic missions in the region were already operating under what the department calls “restricted operating status”, a measure often used in conflict zones that allows greater flexibility in adjusting personnel levels.
On Wednesday, the State Department ordered nonessential employees and their families to leave Saudi Arabia, department spokesman Tommy Pigott said.
The department has also been quietly moving personnel in and out of several other diplomatic missions in the region. Almost all US missions in the Middle East have been placed under restricted operating status, officials said.
The reduction in diplomatic and other government personnel is directly linked to recent intelligence about Iranian attack plans, according to US officials.
Iran Retaliated After US-Israeli Strikes
The heightened alerts come amid an eight-month war against Iran launched by Trump and Israel, which has driven up energy prices, disrupted economies worldwide and weighed on the US president’s domestic approval ratings.
The United States and Israel have drawn up plans for another wave of strikes on Iran after the US midterm elections, The New York Times reported on Wednesday. Trump has not made a final decision on whether to proceed with the strikes.
Although Trump has refrained from ordering large-scale attacks on Iran in recent months, the US military has imposed a blockade on Iranian ports in an effort to prevent Tehran from selling oil and other energy products on the global market.
Iranian officials have explored different ways to retaliate against the United States and its allies, US officials said. In early October, the US military withdrew all 12 B-1 bombers from RAF Fairford, a base in southern England, after commanders received information about Iranian threats to the installation.
In his memo to Rubio on Friday, Clayton said he was seeking to lower the classification of some intelligence so that more US government employees could be informed about what the memo’s subject line described as “lethal plotting against Americans in the Middle East and certain other countries”.
US Had Earlier Ordered Departures From Regional Missions
Following US and Israeli strikes on Iran on February 28, the Iranian military retaliated with drone and missile attacks against Israel and Arab countries across the Middle East.
On March 2, the State Department ordered the mandatory departure of nonessential employees from US missions in Iraq, Jordan and Bahrain.
Around the same time, it also directed nonessential personnel and their families at diplomatic missions in Saudi Arabia to leave after Iran attacked the US Embassy in Riyadh and nearby areas.
Before the war began, only the US embassies in Beirut and Jerusalem had authorised the voluntary departure of nonessential personnel and their family members. The Beirut mission issued its notice four days before the conflict began, while the Jerusalem embassy did so a day before the fighting started.
During periods of reduced violence over the summer, the State Department allowed some diplomats to return to their posts.
The Trump administration faced criticism for not advising the thousands of US citizens in the region to leave before the war began and for providing limited assistance with evacuations after missile attacks started. The administration and Israel had secretly been planning strikes for weeks before launching the assault.
