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US orders diplomats, embassy staff to leave Saudi Arabia in first ‘ordered departure’: Report
The US reportedly ordered diplomats and embassy staff to leave Saudi Arabia after drone attacks hit US embassies in Riyadh amid Middle East tensions.
Amid the escalations in the Middle East, the United States State Department ordered diplomats and US citizen embassy employees in Saudi Arabia to leave the country, the New York Times reported Sunday.
Earlier, non-emergency American citizens working at embassies were asked to leave voluntarily by the State Department. They have now been ordered to leave, marking the first "ordered departure" out of Saudi Arabia since the US-Israel strikes on Iran on February 28.
The State Department has not officially confirmed the ordered departure. They have also not responded to requests for comment on the matter from The New York Times and Bloomberg.
The mandatory evacuation order comes as the US embassies in Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates have been targeted with drone attacks by Iran over the last eight days.
The US embassy in Riyadh was hit by a drone attack, leading to a fire in the compound. The Saudi Ministry of Defense had said that the fire did not lead to any casualties and caused only "minor damage."
The US embassy in Dubai in UAE was also hit by an attack on March 3. The drone struck a parking lot near the consulate building, causing a small fire that authorities quickly contained. No injuries were reported.
However, the attack sparked the possibility of other US embassies, staff members and diplomats being targeted in future attacks as Iran prepares for a potentially bigger retaliation against US allies in the Middle East.
Iran Elects New Ayatollah: Ali Khamenei's Son, Mojtaba
On Sunday, Iranian state media reported that Mojtaba Khamenei, the son Iran's recently deceased Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, has been chosen for the position of the country's new Supreme Leader by the Assembly of Experts.
Also read: Who was Mojtaba Khamenei's wife Zahra Haddad Adel? All about his family and children
"By a decisive vote, the Assembly of Experts appointed Ayatollah Seyyed Mojtaba Hosseini Khamenei as the third Leader of the sacred system of the Islamic Republic of Iran," the assembly said in a statement later.
Trump reacted to the news saying that the choice of Mojtaba Khamenei as the new Ayatollah is "unacceptable" to him. "If he doesn't get approval from us, he's not going to last long," the POTUS wrote, signaling further escalation in the coming days.
