The United States announced on Wednesday that it is preparing a partial evacuation of its embassy in Iraq and has authorised “the voluntary departure” of dependants of American personnel from locations across the Middle East, including Bahrain, Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates, as regional security concerns rise.
On Wednesday evening, US President Donald Trump explained that the decision to relocate staff was made because the region “could be a dangerous place”.
Tensions have been rising recently, fuelled by stalled negotiations between the US and Iran over its nuclear programme, further inflamed by Israel’s repeated statements that it is prepared to launch a strike on Iran.
The US has operated military bases in the Middle East for decades.
According to the Council on Foreign Relations, the US operates a broad network of military sites, both permanent and temporary, across at least 19 locations in the region.
Of these, eight are permanent bases, located across Bahrain, Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.
The US’s first deployment of soldiers in the Middle East was in July 1958 when combat troops were sent to Beirut during the Lebanon Crisis. At its height there were almost 15,000 Marines and Army troops in Lebanon.
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