US cuts embassy staff in 4 Middle East countries amid intelligence on Iran threat to Americans

The US government is reducing staff at its embassies in Jordan, Lebanon, Qatar and the UAE following intelligence suggesting Iran may be planning to target American personnel, AP reported Friday (local time).

Director of National Intelligence Jay Clayton sent a memo to Secretary of State Marco Rubio saying the US had obtained intelligence indicating that "Iran has significantly stepped up its efforts to target American personnel," according to AP.

The four embassies have since moved to "limited operations," a status in which staffing has already been reduced, AP said.

Three US government officials told AP that threats from Iran and Iran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen were connected to the staff reductions.

Earlier, the State Department on Wednesday ordered non-essential American staff and their families to leave the US Embassy in Saudi Arabia. The four embassies currently reducing staff have not yet been placed under a departure order.

When the State Department recently announced the staff reductions at its Middle East embassies, it cited the Houthi threat but did not disclose intelligence pointing to Iran directly targeting Americans.

The four countries where embassy staffing is being cut have either faced concentrated Iranian strikes during the current war with Iran or been the site of fierce fighting between Iran-backed Hezbollah and Israel, as in the case of Lebanon.

However, US officials strongly denied that the staff reductions were connected to any potential new US-Israeli strike against Iran, AP said.