On brink of war? UK and US evacuate embassy staff from Middle East
Illustrative photo: US and UK evacuate embassy staff in Iran (Getty Images)
The United Kingdom and the US have begun evacuating diplomatic staff and their families from Iran and Israel due to a critical escalation in the security situation, Sky News reports.
Read also: Talks over? Trump presented with military options against Iran, Axios reports
Decisions by London and Washington
According to the materials, the UK government has decided to temporarily withdraw its staff from Iran. The Foreign Office noted that the diplomatic mission continues to operate, but remotely.
The UK government portal stated that, due to the current security situation, it had taken a precautionary measure to temporarily withdraw British personnel from Iran.
At the same time, the US State Department has ordered the families of diplomats and personnel not involved in emergency operations to leave Israel.
The US embassy also urged American citizens to use commercial flights to leave the country as soon as possible.
"Persons may wish to consider leaving Israel while commercial flights are available," the US diplomatic mission emphasized.
Reasons for the escalation
Tensions in the region have risen following the failure of another round of negotiations on Tehran’s nuclear program.
US President Donald Trump confirmed in his speech that Washington is considering various scenarios to prevent Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons.
Amid a diplomatic deadlock, the US has been actively increasing its military presence in the region over the past month, strengthening both naval and air formations.
Crisis around Iran
The situation surrounding Iran’s nuclear program escalated after Donald Trump identified Iran’s complete abandonment of nuclear weapons development as a key objective for future negotiations.
However, according to the WSJ, Iran officially rejected Trump’s proposals for a new nuclear deal, effectively blocking the diplomatic path to resolving the crisis.
Following the failure of the dialogue, the American president was presented with a list of possible further actions, indicating that the negotiation stage had come to an end.
As Reuters previously reported, among the possible US response scenarios were measures ranging from targeted strikes on infrastructure to a regime-change strategy in Iran.
