US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee has urged embassy staff in Israel on Friday to leave the country immediately if they wished to depart, citing security concerns, in a sign of imminent American action against Iran amid a deadlock in nuclear talks.
In an email sent to the US mission employees at 10:24 am (local time) on Thursday, Huckabee said those who want to leave “should do so TODAY" and advised them to secure seats on outbound flights from Ben-Gurion Airport as soon as possible, reported the New York Times.
The embassy has also shifted to an “authorised departure" status, allowing non-essential personnel and their family members to leave at government expense, he wrote, describing the move as taken out of “an abundance of caution" after consultations with the State Department.
Huckabee also assured that there was no need to panic, but added that employees should leave sooner rather than later as tensions rise over the prospect of a US strike on Iran. Any attack on Iran could prompt a retaliation action against Israel, which is expected to join the US strikes.
Tensions between Iran and the US are on the rise due to President Donald Trump’s repeated threats to strike Tehran against the backdrop of the largest American military build-up in the Middle East in decades. Several countries, including India, have already advised its citizens to evacuate Iran as soon as possible.
US-Iran Nuclear Talks
The United States and Iran have made “significant progress" in the third round of nuclear talks in Geneva on Thursday, according to Oman, the mediator of the talks. However, the chances of a deal to avoid war remain unclear.
Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, who led Tehran’s delegation, described the negotiations as among the “most intense and longest rounds" of discussions. He said “good progress" had been made, with agreement reached on some issues, though differences remain on others. He indicated the next round would take place in less than a week.
According to Iranian state media, Tehran’s negotiators reaffirmed Iran’s right to pursue peaceful nuclear energy. They rejected US demands to halt uranium enrichment completely and to transfer the country’s 400kg stockpile of enriched uranium abroad.
Iran Tells US To ‘Drop Excessive Demands’
On Friday, Iran said the US will have to drop its “excessive demands" on Tehran’s missile programme after the Wall Street Journal reported that Trump’s negotiating team would demand that Iran dismantle its three main nuclear sites and hand over all its remaining enriched uranium to the United States.
In a conversation with his Egyptian counterpart, Araghchi emphasised that “success in this path requires seriousness and realism from the other side and avoidance of any miscalculation and excessive demands".
This came after Trump said in his State of the Union address that Iran had “already developed missiles that can threaten Europe and our bases overseas, and they’re working to build missiles that will soon reach the United States of America". Iran’s President Masoud Pezeshkian insisted ahead of the talks that the Islamic republic was not “at all" seeking a nuclear weapon.
Source: News18