Last minute appeal for Americans in the Middle East: They are asked to leave 14 countries “IMMEDIATELY”
A passenger plane captured above the sky of Doha, Qatar, on January 31, 2026. PHOTO: AA/ABACA / Abaca Press / Profimedia
The US State Department urged American citizens to “immediately leave” 14 countries in the Middle East, including Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE), following the US-Israeli attacks on Iran, Reuters reports.
Real time information about the war in Iran and what is happening in the region
Mora Namdar, the State Department's assistant secretary for consular affairs, wrote that US citizens should leave those states using available commercial transportation “for safety reasons.”
“Secretary of State Marco Rubio and the State Department urge American citizens to IMMEDIATELY leave the countries listed below, using available commercial transportation, due to serious security risks,” Mora Namdar said in a message published on the X social network.
The @SecRubio @StateDept urges Americans to DEPART NOW from the countries below using available commercial transportation, due to serious safety risks. Americans who need State Department assistance arranging to depart via commercial means, CALL US 24/7 at +1-202-501-4444 (from… pic.twitter.com/vdplAik2Sq
— Assistant Secretary Mora Namdar (@AsstSecStateCA) March 2, 2026
The warning came after the State Department updated its travel advisories for several countries in the region in recent days, recommending that travel be avoided.
The advisory issued on Monday applies to Bahrain, Egypt, Iran, Iraq, Israel (including the West Bank and Gaza Strip), Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Syria, the United Arab Emirates and Yemen.
The US Embassy in Amman (Jordan) announced on Monday that its staff had left the site “due to a threat”.
The US State Department also activated an emergency interagency task force to manage the situation and coordinate the US response to the Middle East conflict, a US official said.
On Saturday, the United States and Israel carried out a series of attacks on various targets in Iran, killing many high-ranking officials, including Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Tehran responded with its own attacks on several American and Israeli sites in the region.
US President Donald Trump said on Monday that the war was expected to last four to five weeks, but that it could be longer.
The conflict, which has plunged the region into war, killing hundreds so far, has sent energy prices soaring as Iranian officials have threatened to fire on any ship trying to pass through the Strait of Hormuz, a key shipping route for global oil supplies.
US Treasury Chief Scott Bessent and Energy Secretary Chris Wright are expected on Tuesday to announce US measures to mitigate rising energy prices, according to US Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
“We anticipated that this could be a problem, and Secretary Wright and Bessent will begin to implement these measures, starting tomorrow, to mitigate the impact that this could have,” Rubio said before a meeting with US congressional leaders about the attacks on Iran.
Hundreds of thousands of travelers are currently stranded in the Gulf states as airspace over some of the world's busiest airports, such as those in Dubai and Abu Dhabi, has been closed since the weekend.
