US urges its citizens to leave Israel immediately amid strike threat on Iran

Department of State also authorises non-essential officials and their families to book flights anywhere

The aircraft carrier USS Gerald R. Ford passes on its way to the Oslo Fjord, at Drobak, Norway, Wednesday, May 24, 2023. Picture: Terje Pedersen/NTB Scanpix via AP

The US has authorised the departure of non-essential government workers and their families from Israel as the threat of an American strike on Iran looms.

US citizens should “consider leaving Israel while commercial flights are available”, the Department of State advisory added. It also urged against travel to Israel.

The warning came after talks between the US and Iran over the future of Tehran’s nuclear programme ended inconclusively, with a suggestion that further discussions would be held next week.

Donald Trump, the US president, has assembled two carrier strike groups ready to attack Iran if he believes Tehran is not serious about ending its nuclear activities.

The Department of State warning was supplemented by a message to US embassy staff from the ambassador to Israel, Mike Huckabee, urging those that wanted to leave to “do so TODAY”.

He contacted embassy staff in an email sent at 12.04am local time, urging them to book flights anywhere they could.

This move “will likely result in high demand for airline seats today”, he wrote. “Focus on getting a seat to any place from which you can then continue travel to DC, but the first priority will be getting expeditiously out of the country.”

The call to leave Israel came as Oman’s foreign minister, Badr Albusaidi, the key mediator in the talks between the US and Iran, flew to Washington in what looked increasingly like a last-ditch effort to persuade the Trump administration to hold back. 

He is due to brief JD Vance, the US vice-president, and make the case that enough progress has been made in the talks to warrant caution.

The urgency of his visit, hours after talks between Iran and the US ended in Geneva on Thursday evening, suggests he believes he needs to act quickly to counter those making the case for a military intervention.

In a sign that large gaps exists between the two sides, the Iranian leadership called on the US to drop its toughest demands. The US negotiators, Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, ominously issued no statement after the talks.

Mr Vance, by reputation, is the senior member of the administration most opposed to military interventions and Albusaidi’s task is to try to persuade him that a swift military strike will not change Iran’s basic negotiating stance.

In an interview with the Washington Post, Mr Vance said: “The idea that we’re going to be in a Middle Eastern war for years with no end in sight – there is no chance that will happen.” 

He added that he did not know whether Mr Trump would back a military strike.

Iran has held out against Washington’s demand to export its highly enriched uranium stockpile to the US and says it is not willing to end altogether its right to enrich uranium domestically. 

The Iranian parliament passed a law last July that banned cooperation with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and required a recognition of Iran’s “right to enrich” before inspectors can return.

But Iran has said it would commit to needs-based enrichment and for now would require only 20% or lower purity levels at its Tehran research reactor. The fuel for this reactor comes from Russia.

The site mainly makes medical isotopes used to diagnose illnesses such as heart disease. Its three main nuclear facilities were destroyed by US bombing last June.

Iran also has a largely Russian-built facility at Bushehr on the Persian coast. The first civilian nuclear power plant in the Middle East, it is also supplied with Russian fuel.

The separate issue of its 400kg stockpile of highly enriched uranium at 60% could be addressed by diluting or “downblending” it as happened under the 2015 nuclear agreement.

The two sides are scheduled to meet next week at technical level in Vienna at the headquarters of the IAEA, the UN-affiliated body that would be required to verify Iranian compliance.

The agency is due to hold its quarterly board meeting next week and it is expected that Rafael Grossi, its director general, will give an update on access to Iran’s nuclear sites. Grossi is seeking to succeed António Guterres as the UN secretary general so a deal over Tehran’s nuclear programme would be a feather in his cap.