The United States 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, US and Iraqi sources said Wednesday.The four US and two Iraqi sources did not specify which security risks had prompted the decision and reports of the potential evacuation pushed up oil prices by more than 4%.’The State Department regularly reviews American personnel abroad and this decision was made as a result of a recent review,’ White House spokeswoman Anna Kelly told Reuters when asked about reports of the partial evacuations, without giving further details.A White House official said US President Donald Trump was aware of the move.The partial evacuations come at a moment of heightened tensions in a region already aflame after 18 months of war in Gaza that has raised fears of a wider conflagration pitting the US and Israel against Iran and its allies.Trump has repeatedly threatened to strike Iran if stuttering talks over its nuclear programme fail and Wednesday he said he was growing less confident that Tehran would agree to stop enriching uranium, a key American demand.Iranian Defence Minister Aziz Nasirzadeh also said Wednesday that Iran would retaliate against US bases in the region if the nuclear talks failed and it was subjected to strikes.The United States has a military presence in Iraq, Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates.US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has authorised the voluntary departure of military dependents from locations across the Middle East, a US official said. Another US official said that was mostly relevant to family members located in Bahrain — where the bulk of them are based.’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.An Iraqi foreign ministry official said a ‘partial evacuation’ of US embassy staff had been confirmed due to what the official termed ‘potential security concerns related to possible regional tensions.’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.
