The US Department of Defense has begun to reduce the number of its forces stationed at military bases in the Middle East amid growing threats in the region.
Modern.az reports that CBS News published information about this.
A US official and a high-ranking military officer told the TV channel that the presence of American troops at facilities in the Middle East is being limited due to the expanding conflict in Yemen, as well as the increasing direct threats from Iran. This process has been carried out in recent days.
Captain Tim Hawkins, a representative of the US Armed Forces Central Command (CENTCOM), commented on this information to CBS News:
“We regularly carry out the redeployment of US military personnel and military equipment to optimize the level of readiness for the execution of tasks. For reasons of operational security, we do not discuss the details of such redeployments.”
According to the TV channel, the US State Department also instructed its non-essential staff and their family members at American embassies in Saudi Arabia to leave the country after a series of Houthi attacks.
Tommy Piggott, a representative of the US State Department, wrote about this on the social network “X”:
“The US State Department has only instructed non-emergency US government employees and their family members in Saudi Arabia to leave the country.”
Piggott stated that some media reports that employees of other US embassies in Persian Gulf countries, including diplomatic missions in the United Arab Emirates, Jordan, Qatar, and Bahrain, were also instructed to leave their countries are inaccurate.
Thus, according to the US side's statement, the instruction to evacuate diplomats and government employees currently applies only to Saudi Arabia. The details of the redeployment of military forces in the Middle East are not disclosed due to operational security.
