US President Donald Trump said on Wednesday US personnel were being moved out of the Middle East because "it could be a dangerous place," adding that the United States would not allow Iran to have a nuclear weapon.
Reuters reported earlier on Wednesday that the US 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, according to US and Iraqi sources.
The four US and two Iraqi sources did not say what security risks had prompted the decision and reports of the potential evacuation pushed up oil prices by more than 4%.
The State Department updated its worldwide travel advisory on Wednesday evening to reflect the latest US posture. “On June 11, the Department of State ordered the departure of non-emergency US government personnel due to heightened regional tensions,” the advisory said.
The decision by the US to evacuate some personnel comes at a volatile moment in the region. Trump's efforts to reach a nuclear deal with Iran appear to be deadlocked and US intelligence indicates that Israel has been making preparations for a strike against Iran's nuclear facilities.
"They are being moved out because it could be a dangerous place, and we'll see what happens," Trump told reporters. "We've given notice to move out."
Asked whether anything can be done to lower the temperature in the region, Trump said: "They can't have a nuclear weapon. Very simple, they can't have a nuclear weapon."
Trump has repeatedly threatened to strike Iran if stuttering talks over its nuclear program fail and in an interview released earlier on Wednesday said he was growing less confident that Tehran would agree to stop enriching uranium, a key American demand.
Iranian Defense Minister Aziz Nasirzadeh also said on Wednesday that if Iran was subjected to strikes it would retaliate by hitting US bases in the region.
US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has authorized the voluntary departure of military dependents from locations across the Middle East, a US official said.
"The State Department is set to have an ordered departure for (the) US embassy in Baghdad. The intent is to do it through commercial means, but the US military is standing by if help is requested," a third US 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.
Another US official said that there was no change in operations at Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar, the largest US military base in the Middle East and that no evacuation order had been issued for employees or families linked to the US embassy in Qatar, which was operating as usual.
