Iran Threat: US Pulls Non-Essential Staff From 7 Middle East Missions

American embassies across the Middle East are shedding staff after intelligence assessments indicated Iranian plans to target US personnel abroad have reached advanced stages. The warning came in an internal memorandum circulated to senior officials.

Director of National Intelligence Jay Clayton sent the memo to Secretary of State Marco Rubio. It states that US agencies gathered intelligence showing Iran has "substantially increased efforts to target US personnel" overseas, with lethal plots reaching advanced stages in the Middle East and other countries. Axios first reported the document's existence, and a US official told The New York Times it is authentic.

The State Department said Wednesday it is removing non-essential personnel from its embassy in Saudi Arabia, citing escalating Houthi attacks on Saudi infrastructure. The agency has also quietly reduced staffing at six other posts: the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar, Jordan and Lebanon, CNN reported. A US official told The New York Times that Houthi strikes and "Iranian terror plots targeting US officials" drove those decisions.

Threat assessments conducted in recent weeks have identified American officials, including ambassadors, as potential targets, and Iran has lined up potential targets in Europe, The New York Times reported, citing unnamed officials. Some intelligence also points to Iranian operatives already working inside the United States. Another official told the newspaper Iran lacks the capacity to carry out all its ambitions.

American personnel in the region face what officials called the highest level of threat since the US-Israel war on Iran opened on Feb. 28. The Pentagon has confirmed 21 US military personnel have been killed in the Middle East since that date. President Donald Trump said Friday the US "may do another little epic fury", invoking the codename for the war.

Iran has not responded to the memo. Revolutionary Guard spokesman Hossein Mohebbi said Wednesday that Tehran would adopt a new "offensive" strategy if the US renewed attacks, ending any limit to retaliation, and said Iranian missiles had improved in quality, range and power. Reuters, citing two senior Iranian security officials, reported Tehran holds detailed plans to target undersea communications cables in the Gulf if new US-Israeli attacks occur. Iran's security chief Mohsen Rezaei has also warned that cables, data centres and artificial intelligence facilities across the region could be hit if war resumes.

US authorities have pursued Iranian-linked plots for years. A US court convicted a Pakistani national in March of plotting to assassinate Trump and other politicians on Revolutionary Guard orders. In 2022, a Guard member was charged with trying to arrange the killing of former national security adviser John Bolton, allegedly offering $300,000 to people in the US to carry it out. Last year, the US intelligence community said Iran would "continue to directly threaten US persons globally", particularly officials tied to the 2020 killing of Quds Force commander Qassem Soleimani. This month, the US pulled bombers from an airbase in England over concerns about a possible attack, after which UK authorities arrested several men on suspicion of working with Iranian intelligence.

Reports have circulated that the US and Israel may prepare a new military campaign after next month's US mid-term elections. Washington has not commented publicly on the Clayton memo.