Top U.S. officials have been told that Israel is prepared to launch an operation against Iran, reports said, which officials believe will lead to Iranian retaliation against American targets in Iraq.
The move is said to be behind a State Department move Wednesday to order nonessential employees at the American Embassy in Baghdad to leave, according to The Associated Press.
The move was part of an effort “to keeping Americans safe, both at home and abroad,” according to the State Department. As the AP noted, the embassy in Baghdad “already had been on limited staffing, and the order will not affect a large number of personnel.”
U.S. Central Command said Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth “has authorized the voluntary departure of military dependents from locations” in the region and that CENTCOM “is monitoring the developing tension in the Middle East.”
CBS News was the first to report that American officials are anticipating an attack by Israel in Iran, although it didn’t provide specifics.
However, it was anticipated that any strike would be related to Iran’s nuclear program. Per CBS:
The Trump administration has sought a deal with Iran to limit the country’s nuclear program, as international watchdogs say the country has continued to enrich uranium to near-weapons level. The talks are delicate, and it’s unclear how close the two sides are to a deal: Mr. Trump has said he will not accept any uranium enrichment by Iran, but Iranian leaders have indicated they won’t accept those terms, the president said earlier this week.
For years, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has been deeply skeptical of any deal with Iran. The two countries have been nemeses since Iran’s 1979 revolution. Netanyahu’s office says Israel has conducted “countless overt and covert operations” to stunt the growth of Iran’s nuclear program.
Neither the White House nor Israeli officials would comment when contacted by CBS.
U.S. President Donald Trump had publicly advised Netanyahu not to attack Iran last month.
“I told him this would be inappropriate to do right now because we’re very close to a solution,” Trump said.
“Now, that could change at any moment. That could change with a phone call. But right now I think they want to make a deal, and if we can make a deal, [it would] save a lot of lives.”
However, Trump spoke to the issue outside the Kennedy Center on Wednesday evening, saying the departure of personnel in the Middle East was “because it could be a dangerous place, and we’ll see what happens.”
“We’re not going to allow that,” Trump said when asked about Iran developing a nuclear weapon.
Asked at the White House about why the personnel had departed the region, he said, “You’ll have to see.”
The implications were pretty plain, though, as Iranian Defense Minister Aziz Nasirzadeh told reporters that if talks between the United States and his country break down and “a conflict is imposed on us,” Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps would “target all U.S. bases in the host countries.”
Talks between U.S. special envoy Steve Witkoff and Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi are set to resume in Oman on Sunday. Reuters reported on Wednesday that the meeting was still on, and on Monday, Iran said it would offer the United States a counter-proposal to a U.S.-backed plan to limit its unclear stockpile, which it has called “unacceptable.”
Reuters also noted that President Trump told a podcast Monday, he was “less confident about” a deal than he was prior.
“I don’t know,” he told the hosts of “Pod Force One” when asked if he could get Tehran to agree to stopping uranium enrichment. “I don’t know. I did think so, and I’m getting more and more — less confident about it.”
Advertise with The Western Journal and reach millions of highly engaged readers, while supporting our work. Advertise Today.