- All 'non-emergency' US government employees told to leave Iraq immediately
- Comes after US said it had detected threats from Iran and proxy forces in region
- UK embassy staff are 'operating as normal' with 'no plans' to withdraw them
- Relations between Tehran and US have drastically deteriorated in recent days
- President Trump has warned Iran would 'suffer greatly' if it enraged Washington
- Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has warned that enriching uranium to weapons-grade levels would not be a difficult task for the country
America has today ordered all of its 'non-emergency government employees' to leave Iraq immediately amid escalating tensions with Iran.
The U.S. State Department ordered the pullout of the employees from both the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad and its consulate in Erbil, the embassy said in a statement.
'Normal visa services at both posts will be temporarily suspended,' it said, recommending those affected depart as soon as possible. It was unclear how many staff would leave.
On Tuesday, the U.S. military reaffirmed concerns about possible imminent threats from Iran to its troops in Iraq, although a senior British commander cast doubt on that and Tehran has called it 'psychological warfare.'
It comes against the backdrop of tinderbox relations between Tehran and America and as tensions escalated further with the sabotage of four tankers off the coast of the UAE on Sunday - an act US officials initially suspected of being carried out by Iran or its proxies.
Yesterday, Iran-backed Houthi rebels claimed to have carried out drone attacks on key Saudi Arabian oil installations with the kingdom calling it a 'terrorist act'.
Amid an escalating war of words, US President Donald Trump has said Tehran would 'suffer greatly' if it enraged Washington while Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said last night that enriching uranium to weapons-grade levels would not be a difficult task for the country.
In his same speech last night, Khamenei tempered his veiled threat by insisting that 'no one is seeking war'.
A senior Iranian official said today that Tehran was ready for all scenarios from 'confrontation to diplomacy' but the United States could not afford another war in the Middle East.
Any conflict in the region will have 'unimaginable consequences,' the official told Reuters.
Those comments came after Yemen's Houthi rebels launched a coordinated drone attack on a critical oil pipeline in Saudi Arabia.
A satellite image obtained by The Associated Press shows one of the two pumping stations attacked by the drones apparently intact.
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