State Department cuts staff at four embassies after Iran threat memo

All four missions remain open amid renewed Houthi attacks on Saudi Arabia

The State Department is reducing staffing at its embassies in Jordan, Lebanon, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates after receiving intelligence that Iran had substantially increased efforts to target U.S. personnel. The four embassies will remain open under a restricted operations status that has already reduced their personnel footprints.

In a Friday memo to Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Director of National Intelligence Jay Clayton wrote that his teams “have received intelligence that Iran has substantially increased efforts to target U.S. personnel.” The Associated Press obtained the memo, which Axios had reported earlier, and three U.S. officials confirmed that it was sent to Rubio as secretary of state and national security adviser.

Clayton also wrote: “The lethal plotting efforts by the Iranians against U.S. citizens have reached advanced stages in both the Middle East and certain other countries.” The memo emerged shortly after the State Department announced the staffing reductions.

The State Department’s public announcement pointed specifically to increased threats from Yemen’s Houthi rebels and did not mention threats to U.S. personnel directly from Iran. Three U.S. officials, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the matter, said the threats from Iran and the Houthi rebels were related to the staffing changes.

All four embassies operate under “restricted operations” status, which has already reduced their personnel footprints, but they will remain open. Unlike Saudi Arabia, where nonessential U.S. personnel and their families were ordered Wednesday to leave the country, staff in the other four countries are not compelled to depart.

There has been a resurgence of fighting between a Saudi-led coalition and the Houthis, with the group launching missile and drone strikes against Saudi Arabia. Separately, U.S. officials adamantly denied that the embassy drawdowns were tied to potential new U.S. and Israeli strikes on Iran.

The war has spiked energy costs for Americans and created political problems for President Donald Trump and Republicans who are trying to keep control of Congress in the Nov. 3 midterm elections. At a rally Friday in Florida, Trump touted the U.S. military operations in Iran, which were dubbed “Operation Epic Fury,” and said that “we may do another little Epic Fury, or they’ll agree. If they’re smart, they’ll just say, ‘Let’s get down to business.’”

Mediators have been trying to bring Washington and Tehran back to formal talks as the war reaches a stalemate. According to Iranian state television, the Revolutionary Guard navy again threatened this week to strike U.S. military bases in the region if the United States continued helping guide commercial ships through the Strait of Hormuz.

The Strait is a critical waterway for the global energy trade. Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi wrote in a Financial Times opinion column this week that “Any further escalation around the Strait of Hormuz or elsewhere in the region will put civilian lives and the well-being of all regional states and the global economy at great risk.”

The immediate effect of the drawdowns is a smaller U.S. presence at four still-operating missions, not a closure or ordered departure. The public explanation centers on Houthi threats, while the intelligence memo and three officials also identify Iran as a factor in the decision.