US Orders Diplomats to Exit Saudi Arabia — First Evacuation Order of the War

American personnel at the US diplomatic mission in Saudi Arabia have been ordered to leave the country, The New York Times reported, citing current and former officials. The reported order from the US State Department represents the first diplomatic evacuation from any country during the ongoing Iran war. The move comes following a sustained pattern of Iranian attacks on Saudi Arabia: the US embassy in Riyadh was struck by two drones on Day 3 (Tuesday), which sparked a small fire; Americans in multiple Saudi cities were given shelter-in-place orders; and Saudi Arabia shot down another drone aimed at the embassy district on Day 9. The 7th US KIA — a soldier wounded in Saudi Arabia on March 1 — died on Day 9. US diplomats in Saudi Arabia had requested the evacuation order, according to the Times, suggesting staff assessed the security situation as untenable. The Saudi situation is acute: unlike other Gulf states (Bahrain, UAE, Kuwait) which have publicly tolerated Iranian strikes while relying on interception, Saudi Arabia is the largest and most strategically important Gulf state, and Iranian strikes there carry far greater political and economic significance. Nonessential workers and families at other US embassies, including Israel, have been given voluntary departure options but not ordered to leave.