The US is reducing staff levels at its embassy in Iraq on security concerns, US officials told several media outlets on Wednesday, as Iran threatened US bases if conflict breaks out.
“Based on our latest analysis, we decided to reduce the footprint of our mission in Iraq,” a US official told AFP on condition of anonymity.
Meanwhile, The Financial Times reported that US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth authorised the voluntary departure of military dependents throughout the Middle East.
The withdrawals come as Iran’s defence minister, Aziz Nasirzadeh, said on Wednesday that Tehran would target US military assets in the region in response to any attack “without hesitation”.
“God willing, things won’t reach that point, and the talks will succeed,” he said, adding that the US side “will suffer more losses” if it came to conflict.
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Tehran and Washington have held five rounds of talks since April to negotiate a new nuclear deal to replace the 2015 accord that US President Donald Trump abandoned during his first term in 2018. The next round of talks is scheduled for Thursday.
“Ordered departure from US Emb Baghdad could reflect a major threat, but also is impactful as a means of signaling possible near-term military action against Iran. It’s a big move, hard to reverse quickly, comes at some cost. So if signaling, you play this card when you mean it,” Daniel Shapiro, the US’s former ambassador to Israel, wrote on X.
Shapiro added that it doesn’t “necessarily” mean military action is imminent but said that the move provides “important leverage in nuclear talks”.
Trump had previously expressed optimism about the talks, saying during a Gulf tour last month that Washington was “getting close” to securing a deal.
But in an interview published on Wednesday, Trump said he was “less confident” the US and Iran could reach a deal, in response to a question on whether he believed he could stop Tehran from enriching uranium.
“Something happened to them, but I am much less confident of a deal being made… Maybe they don’t wanna make a deal, what can I say? And maybe they do. There is nothing final.”
Trump maintained that Washington would not allow Tehran to obtain nuclear weapons, saying that “it would be nicer to do it without warfare, without people dying”.
Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke on Monday. Trump says he had been holding back Netanyahu from launching preemptive strikes on Iran.
Oil prices jumped almost four percent on Wednesday amid the tensions.
