Order comes days as tensions between the US and neighbouring Iran ratchet up as US military forces head to the Gulf.
All non-essential American government staff were ordered out of Iraq on Wednesday as tensions between the United States and Iran continue to rise. Germany and the Netherlands also pulled out soldiers involved in training in Iraq, Iran’s neighbour to the west.
The US State Department ordered the departure of “non-emergency government employees” from Iraq, it said in a statement. The US Embassy in Baghdad advised those employees to leave Iraq by commercial transportation “as soon as possible.” “Normal visa services at both posts will be temporarily suspended. The US government has limited ability to provide emergency services to US citizens in Iraq,” the State Department said, referring to the embassy and the US consulate in Erbil.
The alert comes amid rising tensions between Washington and Tehran. The US military has deployed forces – including an aircraft carrier and B-52 bombers – to the Middle East in a move American officials said was to counter “clear indications” of threats from Iran to its troops in the region. On Sunday, the embassy advised Americans to avoid travel to Iraq, citing “heightened tensions”. Washington last month blacklisted Iran’s Revolutionary Guard as a ‘terrorist group’. The fast-moving developments have raised concerns that a conflict could break out between US and Iranian forces. However, Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said on Tuesday there would be no war with the US despite mounting tensions.
More tense
The German government also said its military has suspended training of Iraqi soldiers because of the tensions in the region between the US and Iran. German Defence Ministry spokesperson Jens Flosdorff told reporters in Berlin that Germany is “orienting itself toward our partner countries, which have taken this step”. But he stressed that “there is no concrete threat” and the decision is down to the security situation in general being viewed as more tense. Germany currently has about 160 German soldiers in Iraq as part of the fight against Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL, ISIS), about 60 of them at a base north of Baghdad where Iraqi forces are being trained. The Dutch government also suspended a mission in Iraq that provides assistance to local authorities, Dutch news agency ANP reported on Wednesday.
Dutch military personal help train Iraqi forces in Erbil, northern Iraq, along with other foreign troops. The report gave no details about the nature of the threat. The US administration reimposed sanctions on Iranian oil exports in November after President Donald Trump unilaterally pulled out of the 2015 nuclear deal between Tehran, Washington and major world powers. On Wednesday, Iran said it would officially stop fulfilling some commitments under the 2015 deal following an order from its national security council, ISNA news agency reported. An official in the country’s atomic energy body told ISNA that Iran now would not limit its production of enriched uranium and heavy water.
