U.S. clears some diplomatic staff to leave Israel as tension with Iran continues despite talks

The U.S. State Department authorized non-emergency personnel and their family members to leave Israel on Friday, citing unspecified “safety risks.”

The change in guidance from the State Department comes as the U.S. continues negotiations with Iran on a potential nuclear deal, which Tehran hopes will avert a potential American military assault President Trump has prepared for with a massive deployment to the Middle East.

After the latest round of indirect talks brokered by Oman, held Thursday in Geneva, Iran’s top diplomat said there was some progress toward a new agreement on his country’s nuclear enrichment program, calling it “one of the most serious and longest rounds of talks” to date.

President Trump has threatened to attack Iran if no deal to rein in its nuclear program can be reached, and several outside experts told CBS News Thursday that the negotiations appear unlikely to yield an agreement both sides can live with,  making an American attack likely, possibly soon.

The State Department did not mention Iran in its latest travel guidance on Friday, but said it was authorizing the departure of non-emergency U.S. government personnel and family members from Israel due to safety risks, noting that, “in response to security incidents and without advance notice, the U.S. Embassy may further restrict or prohibit U.S. government employees and their family members from traveling to certain areas of Israel, the Old City of Jerusalem, and the West Bank.”

“Persons may wish to consider leaving Israel while commercial flights are available,” the State Department said. Flights to and from Israeli and other regional airports are often halted when the risk of military action increases.

U.S. special envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, Mr. Trump’s son-in-law, have led the negotiations with Iran on behalf of the Trump administration, and there was no readout from them or the White House on the discussions Thursday in Geneva.

While few outside analysts see much reason for optimism, Iran — and the Omanis, who are brokering the talks aimed at averting U.S. strikes that many believe could snowball into a wider regional conflict — tried to paint Thursday’s meetings as productive.

“Regarding some issues, there is now an understanding, and on others, it’s natural that we have differences,” said Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, who led his country’s delegation in Geneva. “However, there was perhaps more seriousness on both sides than before, with the aim of reaching a negotiated solution.”

“It was agreed that technical teams will start their work in Vienna on Monday to conduct technical reviews at the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) with the help of its experts, in order to develop a framework for addressing some technical issues,” Araghchi said, adding that following consultations by both negotiating teams back in their respective capitals, “we will have the fourth round of negotiations next week.”

Mr. Trump has said, and Secretary of State Marco Rubio has reiterated, that the president would prefer a negotiated solution to the standoff over Iran’s crippled nuclear program, which Rubio has accused Tehran of trying to rebuild in the wake of U.S. strikes in June last year that seriously damaged the country’s three primary enrichment facilities.

President Trump has not made clear whether he would accept a new agreement that curbs Iran’s nuclear program without addressing other U.S. grievances, most notably Iran’s stockpile of conventional ballistic missiles and its support for armed “proxy groups” in the region.

Vice President JD Vance told The Washington Post on Thursday that Mr. Trump was still considering military strikes “to ensure Iran isn’t going to get a nuclear weapon,” but that he also remained open to solving “the problem diplomatically.”

Vance downplayed warnings from many nations in the region, including some of America’s close partners in the Mideast, that any U.S. strike could lead to a war that draws in other nations – and one that cannot be quickly ended.

“The idea that we’re going to be in a Middle Eastern war for years with no end in sight — there is no chance that will happen,” Vance was quoted as saying by The Post.

When Mr. Trump ordered the strikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities in June, joining Israel in attacking the country, Tehran responded by launching missiles at the biggest U.S. military base in the Middle East. Mr. Trump indicated that the retaliation had been telegraphed to the U.S. in advance, and the missiles were intercepted.

Iran had, 10 days earlier, fired a barrage of missiles at Israel in response to its attacks, including one that slipped through Israel’s sophisticated air defenses and landed in the heart of its capital, Tel Aviv.

While Israel inflicted serious damage on Iran’s ballistic missile capacity during the 12-day war in June, some outside observers believe Iran has restocked its arsenal and has hundreds of rockets capable of targeting Israel and American military assets in the region.

On Thursday, retired U.S. Army Lt. Gen. H.R. McMaster, a CBS News contributor who served as national security adviser in the first Trump administration, predicted that the Trump administration would not find enough common ground with Iran’s hardline Islamic rulers to avert a new military clash.

“The ideology of the theocratic dictatorship and its permanent hostility to the United States and Israel will result in intransigence and an inability to make concessions on enrichment, the missile program, and support for terrorist organizations,” he said. 

McMaster, who commanded U.S. forces in the Middle East during his career in the Army, said rather than another limited strike like June’s “Operation Midnight Hammer,” which just hit Iranian nuclear facilities, “I think that the opening campaign will be extensive, not a ‘signaling’ exercise. Iran will have very limited options to retaliate and expand the conflict due to U.S. extensive air defense, offensive counter-air, and long-range strike capabilities.”

Friday’s U.S. travel advisory update on Israel came as a long list of other countries issued similar warnings for their citizens to leave the country, and Iran. 

Australia told dependents of its diplomats in Israel and neighboring Lebanon to leave those countries on Wednesday, with voluntary departures offered to dependents in the United Arab Emirates, Qatar and Jordan, as well, citing the “deteriorating security situation in the region.”

India, Brazil, Singapore and at least six European nations have, since mid-January, warned their citizens against travel to Iran and urged those in the country to leave, and China’s state-run media said Friday that Chinese nationals in Iran should also evacuate.