By Jasper Ward
WASHINGTON, March 2 (Reuters) - The U.S. Department of State on Monday called on Americans to immediately depart more than a dozen countries in the Middle East, including Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, amid U.S-Israeli strikes against Iran.
Mora Namdar, the State Department's assistant secretary for consular affairs, said U.S. citizens should leave using available commercial transportation "due to safety risks."
The warning came after the department, in recent days, updated
its travel advisories for several countries in the region to recommend against travel. Monday's advisory applies to Bahrain, Egypt, Iran, Iraq, Israel, the West Bank and Gaza, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Syria, United Arab Emirates and Yemen.The U.S. Embassy in Amman, Jordan, announced earlier on Monday that its personnel had departed the site "due to a threat."
The U.S. State Department has also activated an inter-agency emergency task force to manage the situation and coordinate the United States' response to the conflict, a U.S. official said.
On Saturday, the United States and Israel carried out a barrage of strikes on various targets in Iran, killing many top officials, including Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Tehran responded with its own strikes at multiple U.S. and Israel sites across the regions.
U.S. President Donald Trump said on Monday that the conflict had been projected to last four to five weeks but that it could go longer.
The conflict, which as launched the region into war, leaving scores of people dead, has resulted in a spike in energy prices as Iranian officials threatened to fire on any ship that tries to pass through the Strait of Hormuz, a key shipping route for the world's oil supply.
U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Energy Secretary Chris Wright are expected on Tuesday to announce U.S. steps to mitigate the rising energy prices, according to Washington's top diplomat, Marco Rubio.
"We anticipated this could be an issue, and Secretary Wright and Bessent will begin to roll out those steps, starting tomorrow, to mitigate, to mitigate against the impact that could have," Rubio said ahead of a briefing congressional leaders about the strikes.
(Reporting by Jasper Ward in Washington; Additional reporting by Humeyra Pamuk; Editing by Daphne Psaledakis and Caitlin Webber)
