Two days after U.S. and Israeli strikes against Iran began, the State Department sent out a social media message urging Americans living in or visiting the Middle East to evacuate “using available commercial transportation.” It also reminded them to “have a plan to depart in an emergency that does not depend on U.S. government help.”
The warning struck some of the roughly half a million Americans currently in the Middle East as disorganized and belated at best, given the rising costs of already scarce flights, and limited options because of closed airspace resulting from the war.
The lack of an evacuation plan for Americans on the ground in the region not only demonstrates a failure in strategic planning, critics say. It has also stranded hundreds of thousands of citizens in a conflict zone with limited escape routes. Others note that the U.S. government doesn’t typically spearhead repatriation efforts, except when no other options are available.
Why We Wrote This
America’s recent strikes on Iran have underscored the costs of war-making for the Trump administration, particularly the delicate, high-stakes task of ensuring the safety of a large expatriate population during an escalating conflict.
By Tuesday evening, the State Department appeared to pivot, announcing that it was “actively securing military aircraft and charter flights” for citizens seeking to leave Middle Eastern countries. Some, reporting through social media, news outlets, and text messages with the Monitor, say they are sheltering in place, in part because of the scarcity of available transportation.
Air Force Gen. Dan Caine, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said during a Pentagon news briefing on Wednesday that the U.S. military is opening up available spaces on C-17 cargo planes “to try to help folks get out.”
Still, many Americans find themselves stuck in an expanding war zone as allies in the Middle East are targeted by drone and missile attacks. On Tuesday, a suspected drone strike caused a small fire in the parking lot of the U.S. consulate in Dubai. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said afterwards that all personnel there were accounted for.
By Wednesday, the United States had closed its embassies in Saudi Arabia and Kuwait.
An “absolutely cavalier” tone
Olivia Riordan has lived in the United Arab Emirates since 2003, when she came to teach English at the American University of Sharjah.
A Philadelphia native, she married an Emirati citizen, and they had four children. She has been struck this week by the “absolutely cavalier” tone of the evacuation notices and warnings issued by the U.S. State Department.
U.S. operations against Iran were already well underway before the State Department sent out a message that Americans should depart “what, two days later? And the embassy was still saying to shelter in place,” she says.
“They have told us to depart ‘via commercial aircraft,’ but there are almost no flights available,” Ms. Riordan adds.
In any case, she couldn’t leave even if she were able to find a flight: Her passport, awaiting renewal, is stuck at the U.S. Embassy in Abu Dhabi, which is now closed.
When she called at 11:30 a.m. on Monday to try to get her passport back, “I got an outgoing message saying basically to call back during business hours.”
She understands that State Department staff have valid security concerns after the drone strike on the U.S. consulate in Dubai. But given the widespread post-COVID popularity of remote work, including transferring incoming calls to off-site locations, “at least have somebody answer the phone,” she says.
When she had no success dialing embassy officials on Monday, she tried emailing. In return, she got a boilerplate message saying that the consular section of the U.S. Embassy is closed until further notice.
Managing missiles
In the meantime, Ms. Riordan can hear from her home the sounds of Iranian missiles being intercepted by Emirati defense systems, which have downed, by some estimates, some 93% of incoming projectiles.
“It’s very loud, but that’s just physics,’’ she says. “So, I would say I feel relatively safe. One person described this as ‘the Dubai-VIP version of war.’’’
She is grateful for strong air defenses in the UAE, “which most countries don’t have,” she adds. And she receives alerts on her cellphone warning of approaching missiles and advising residents to stay away from windows, in case they shatter.
As an American living abroad, Ms. Riordan contrasts her current experience in the Middle East with that of her European friends and neighbors there. Germany, for example, has notified its citizens living in the Middle East that it will evacuate children, the sick, and pregnant women on civilian aircraft chartered at taxpayers’ expense.
In the U.S., a torrent of negative comments from Democratic lawmakers, critics, influencers, and ex-pat groups on social media and in news outlets over the weekend accused the Trump administration of failing to plan adequately for American evacuations.
“It is the epitome of absurdity. ‘Leave the country,’ but yet the airspace is closed,” Randy Manner, a retired U.S. major general and the former deputy commanding general of the Third U.S. Army in Kuwait, told The New York Times. He said he had been stuck in the United Arab Emirates since Friday, when he was scheduled to catch a flight to Bangkok.
Since then, the State Department has released more information about possible exit strategies for U.S. citizens, including finding extra seats on flights to other countries, such as Egypt, where connections could be made. The lack of confirmed ambassadors in Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Qatar, Egypt, Kuwait, Algeria, and Iraq, combined with the ordered departures of some staff members, is also adding to the challenges of assisting Americans in the region.
In a statement on Tuesday, the State Department said that, over the past several days, while more than 9,000 Americans “have safely returned from the Middle East,” the department had answered calls from “nearly 3,000 American citizens” to “provide travel options for those wishing to leave.’’ It also said that it is also facilitating some charter flights, “and will continue to secure additional capacity as security conditions allow.” The statement also noted that the U.S. would waive “any statutory requirement for American citizens to reimburse the government for travel expenses.”
During the Pentagon briefing on Wednesday, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said that in the run-up to the war, the U.S. moved “the vast majority of American troops” out of range of Iranian fire.
For all other non-military U.S. citizens living abroad, General Caine added: “It’s a great opportunity to encourage everybody in the region to go to the State Department and register.”
Staff writer Sophie Hills contributed to this report.