The United States has advised its citizens across the Middle East to remain vigilant and prepare to leave the region if tensions escalate, amid reports that Washington is considering a new wave of major strikes against Iran.
The warning was issued as US media reported that President Donald Trump could authorise an intensified military campaign against Iranian targets as early as this weekend.
In its latest security alert, the US State Department said: “US diplomatic facilities, including outside the Middle East, have been targeted.”
“Iran and groups supportive of Iran may target other US interests overseas or at locations associated with the United States and Americans throughout the world.”
Iran responded by accusing Washington of heightening regional tensions, warning that any country assisting the United States would be “engulfed by the flames of war”.
“Americans currently in the Middle East should exercise caution and heightened vigilance and should be prepared for flight cancellations, periodic airspace closures, and potential travel disruptions,” the security alert said on Saturday.
“Americans in the region should consider departing, or be prepared to depart should there be escalation. Americans outside the Middle East should seriously reconsider travel to and through the region.”
US embassies in Bahrain, Iraq, Israel, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates shared the alert with American nationals, cautioning that the situation could deteriorate unexpectedly.
The warning followed reports citing US officials who said Trump was considering ordering further attacks on Iran within days.
According to multiple sources who spoke to CBS News, the BBC’s US media partner, the United States and Israel were preparing what could become one of their most severe bombing campaigns against Iran, with energy infrastructure among the potential targets.
The proposed operation was reportedly discussed during Trump’s cabinet meeting on Friday. CBS News said several White House advisers focused on domestic political concerns strongly opposed the plan.
While reporters were still present at the meeting, Trump was heard saying: “We’ll be hitting them [Iranians] very hard. At some point, they’re going to say, ‘We just can’t take it anymore.'”
The potential escalation comes after the US military announced on Thursday that it had completed a “heavy wave” of retaliatory strikes against Iran following attempted ballistic missile attacks on American forces earlier in the week.
US Central Command said the operation struck “dozens” of targets belonging to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps after Tehran launched attacks against US bases in Jordan and American-linked vessels in the Strait of Hormuz.
Iranian state media reported that three people, including a two-year-old child, were killed during the American strikes.
The conflict intensified again this week after several days of relative calm, beginning with the first publicly acknowledged joint US-Saudi strikes against Iranian-backed groups operating in Iraq.
Washington and Tehran have exchanged increasingly severe attacks since an April ceasefire intended to pause the conflict collapsed in June.
The United States has since imposed a blockade on Iranian ports and bombed military and strategic sites, while Iran has launched missiles and drones towards American assets across the Middle East and attacked vessels travelling through the Strait of Hormuz, one of the world’s most important oil-shipping routes.
The current military campaign began on 28 February, when the United States and Israel launched their first strikes against Iran.
