As the US-Iran war ramps up again, hundreds of American diplomats are stuck in an uncertain limbo. The State Department drew down staffing at embassies and consulates across the Middle East after Iran’s attacks on Gulf states. It is still unclear whether they will return to normal business, or when.
The scale of the drawdown is the largest since the Iraq War began in 2003. The State Department closed several embassies to the public, shut down at least one consulate, ordered the departure of embassy staff and families from at least six nations, and advised Americans in 14 countries to leave the region.
“These disputes could reshape the geopolitical order in East Asia – or even spark a war,” reads a line from a current Diplomat analysis on regional flashpoints, but for the Middle East, that war is already here, and the diplomatic machinery is struggling to keep up.
The countries affected include Bahrain, Egypt, Iran, Iraq, Israel, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Syria, the United Arab Emirates, and Yemen. Even in nations where airports or airspace closed, the State Department said it was organizing land travel to countries with available flights, including Egypt and Oman.
But the drawdown has severely limited the very services American citizens need most in a war zone. Consular services are unavailable in many places. The personnel reductions have limited crucial official engagements with allied governments during the war, including in Bahrain, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Pakistan, Qatar, and Saudi Arabia.
For hundreds of diplomats and their families, the situation is a waiting game. They have been relocated, some to temporary posts, some back to the US, some to third countries, without clear indication of when or whether they will return. The State Department has in recent weeks ordered additional drawdowns at more diplomatic missions, signaling the conflict will not end soon.
The Trump administration stated that the attacks were aimed at degrading Iran’s ability to threaten shipping in the Strait of Hormuz, and Trump has warned of retaliation for the deaths of American soldiers. Last week, the Pentagon identified two soldiers killed in an Iranian ballistic missile and drone attack in Jordan.
Critics argue the State Department was not prepared. Former US ambassador Yael Lempert, who oversaw evacuation efforts from Libya during its 2011 revolution, told Foreign Policy: “It was a predictable contingency that there should have been planning for prior to US strikes on Iran being launched. It’s fundamental in emergency planning that you move nonessential diplomatic personnel and families out early while commercial flights are still available.”
A former consular affairs official who served under the current Trump administration pushed back on that criticism, arguing that evacuations could have tipped Iran off that Washington was serious about military action. “If anything, evacuating would have tipped the Iranians off that we were serious,” he said.
The State Department says it has been in contact with nearly 3,000 Americans wanting to leave the region. Tens of thousands of US citizens, many of them dual nationals, are believed to live in Israel, Lebanon, Egypt, and Iran. The department arranged almost 50 charter flights by March and provided guidance or assistance to nearly 50,000 US citizens.
But the longer the war continues, the harder it becomes to maintain a diplomatic presence in the region. The State Department cannot compel American citizens to leave any country, and many choose to stay despite the warnings. Travel advice, including admonitions not to visit a country or to leave it, is often not respected.
For the diplomats themselves, the question is personal. Many left homes, schools, and communities on short notice. Some have been rotated to other posts. Others remain in temporary assignments, unable to plan for the future. The State Department has not said when, or if, normal operations will resume at the affected embassies.
The missing piece in all this is strategy. A drawdown of this size was not accompanied by a clear public plan for what comes next: when diplomats return, how consular services resume, what happens to the relationships with allied governments that were disrupted. The war in Iran continues, and the diplomats who staffed America’s presence in the Middle East are left watching from the sidelines, waiting for a signal that has not come.