The State Department is preparing to deploy military aircraft to transport U.S. citizens out of the Middle East, as commercial flight complications prevent Americans from heeding evacuation calls.
Iran successfully struck airports in Dubai, Abu Dhabi, and Doha in retaliation for the weekend operations by the United States and Israel. Those three airports are major hubs for international travel, and the continued launch of Iranian strikes has made airlines skittish about take-off.
“The State Department is actively securing military aircraft and charter flights for American citizens who wish to leave the Middle East,” Assistant Secretary Dylan Johnson said Tuesday afternoon. “We’ve been in direct contact with nearly 3,000 Americans abroad.”
Secretary of State Marco Rubio, citing “serious safety risks,” urged all Americans on Monday to “DEPART NOW” from the following countries: Bahrain, Egypt, Iran, Iraq, Israel (including the West Bank and Gaza), Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Syria, United Arab Emirates, and Yemen.
U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee warned Americans on Tuesday morning that there are “very limited options” for travel at the moment.
“We are getting a lot of requests regarding evacuating from Israel from American citizens who are currently in Israel or who have family here. I do not recommend exit via Jordan at this time,” Huckabee wrote on social media. “Flights are not consistent and access across the Allenby crossing has limited hours.”
The problem is further compounded by the closure of key U.S. Embassies due to “ongoing regional tensions,” such as in Kuwait and Lebanon.
The State Department is also offering a dedicated phone line for American citizens in the Middle East seeking “assistance with departure options.”
President Donald Trump was asked in the Oval Office on Tuesday why there wasn’t an evacuation plan ahead of the Saturday strikes, to which he responded that “Operation Epic Fury” was rolled out without sufficient time for such preparation.
“It happened all very quickly. We thought — I thought, maybe more so than most, I could ask Marco — but I thought we were going to have a situation where we were going to be attacked,” Trump said. “They were getting ready to attack Israel, they were getting ready to attack others — you’re seeing that right now.”
“A lot of those missiles that are hitting, those are stationary,” the president continued. “Those were aimed there for a long period of time at those other countries.… We attacked first, and if we didn’t, it could have been — look, we’re really decimating them, they’re being decimated.”
The president’s critics are lambasting the White House for failing to properly prepare U.S. citizens for evacuation before launching Operation Epic Fury.
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“Warnings to citizens to evacuate 3 days into this war, when airspace is closed, is a clear sign of ZERO strategy and planning by the Trump admin,” Sen. Andy Kim (D-NJ) said in a social media statement. “Now Americans have limited options to evacuate at an extremely dangerous moment with no government assistance. This administration is failing its citizens.”
The largest airlines in the region — such as Etihad, Air Emirates, and Qatar Airways — have said their commercial flights are not expected to resume until later in the week.
