Washington: Iran has sharply stepped up efforts to target American officials, with some lethal plots now at an advanced stage, the top US intelligence official has warned Secretary of State Marco Rubio, as Washington pulls diplomats out of Saudi Arabia and trims staff at several other embassies in the region.
In a one-page unclassified memo dated October 23, Director of National Intelligence Jay Clayton told Rubio that Iran had “substantially increased efforts to target U.S. personnel”, Axios reported, citing the document. The memo, copied to CIA Director John Ratcliffe, said lethal plots had “reached advanced stages in both the Middle East and certain other countries”, according to Axios’s Barak Ravid, who first reported it.
The memo did not name targets, the countries outside the Middle East or the nature of the plots, according to the report. The intelligence had already been shared with senior State Department officials, and Clayton offered to downgrade it so it could be shared more widely with State Department staff.
A US official confirmed the memo to IANS.
“When it comes to our staffing at embassies, we constantly evaluate new information about the security environment,” the official said. “The threat of Houthi attacks and of Iranian terror plots targeting U.S. officials are informing our decisions on staffing adjustments for embassies on RO Status in the region.”
Earlier this week, the State Department ordered the departure of non-emergency staff from the US Embassy in Riyadh and the consulates in Jeddah and Dhahran.
On Friday, staff reductions followed at the US embassies in the UAE, Lebanon, Qatar and Jordan. CNN, as cited by the Jerusalem Post, reported that cuts also extend to Bahrain and Kuwait, with diplomats describing the process as “chaotic”.
State Department spokesperson Tommy Pigott said on X that the ordered departure applied to “Saudi Arabia only”.
The warning comes as President Donald Trump keeps open the option of renewed military action. Speaking at a rally in Florida on Friday, Trump said: “We may do another little Operation Epic Fury, or [the Iranians] will agree.”
NBC News reported on October 21 that the US military has also been quietly reducing troop numbers at bases in the Middle East.
(IANS)
