Welcome back to World Brief, where we’re looking at the United States urging its citizens to depart the Middle East, the humanitarian cost of clashes between Afghanistan and Pakistan, and U.S. President Donald Trump’s mixed praise for Europe’s military response to Tehran.
‘DEPART NOW’
Thousands of foreign citizens remain stranded in the Middle East as the U.S.-Israel war against Iran stretches into its fourth day. On Monday, Mora Namdar, the U.S. assistant secretary of state for consular affairs, urged all U.S. citizens to “DEPART NOW” from Bahrain, Egypt, Iran, Iraq, Israel, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Syria, the United Arab Emirates, and Yemen, citing “serious safety risks.”
Welcome back to World Brief, where we’re looking at the United States urging its citizens to depart the Middle East, the humanitarian cost of clashes between Afghanistan and Pakistan, and U.S. President Donald Trump’s mixed praise for Europe’s military response to Tehran.
‘DEPART NOW’
Thousands of foreign citizens remain stranded in the Middle East as the U.S.-Israel war against Iran stretches into its fourth day. On Monday, Mora Namdar, the U.S. assistant secretary of state for consular affairs, urged all U.S. citizens to “DEPART NOW” from Bahrain, Egypt, Iran, Iraq, Israel, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Syria, the United Arab Emirates, and Yemen, citing “serious safety risks.”
But the war’s disruptions to global air travel—including the cancellation of more than 6,000 flights and heavy restrictions or full closures of several nations’ airspaces—have made such departures nearly impossible.
Most U.S. citizens were not given ample warning to leave the region prior to Saturday’s initial U.S. and Israeli strikes on Iran. Just one day before they began, U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee told staff at the U.S. Embassy in Jerusalem that if they wished to leave the country, they “should do so TODAY” while stressing that there was “no need to panic.” The email, seen by the New York Times, instructed personnel to book commercial flights to any destination that they could get to.
Only after the U.S. and Israel began combat operations on Saturday did the U.S. State Department issue a security alert advising “Americans worldwide and especially in the Middle East” to “exercise increased caution,” warning that they “may experience travel disruptions due to periodic airspace closures.”
The lack of notice left many U.S. citizens in Israel and Gulf countries in the lurch—and therefore vulnerable to Iranian attacks.
Asked on Tuesday why there hadn’t been an evacuation plan in place to get Americans out of the region, U.S. President Donald Trump said, “Well, because it happened all very quickly.” However, in a Defense Department briefing on Monday, U.S. Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Dan Caine described a substantial period of preparation ahead of Trump’s decision to launch the first strikes—a process that saw the U.S. military “reposition discreetly civilians and nonessential personnel designed to ensure the safety and security of our joint force. By the time operations began, only essential forces remained on our bases and in theater.”
Iranian forces have fired at least 390 missiles and 830 drones at these nations since war broke out. U.S. and Israeli officials have accused Tehran of targeting civilian population centers, such as airports, hotels, and residences. Although the majority of these attacks have been intercepted, according to several Gulf countries, at least four people have been killed and more than 100 others wounded, according to official tallies by the New York Times. That does not include the confirmed deaths of six U.S. service members in an apparent Iranian drone attack on a U.S. tactical operations center in Kuwait.
Tehran does not appear to be slowing its assault. On Tuesday, two Iranian drones struck the U.S. Embassy in Riyadh. The Saudi Arabian Defense Ministry reported no injuries; however, officials said that the attack caused “limited fire and minor material damage to the building.”
“[W]e recommend American citizens in the Kingdom to shelter in place immediately and avoid the Embassy until further notice due to an attack on the facility,” the U.S. mission said, adding that nonessential travel to military installations should be limited. The “shelter in place” recommendation applies to the Saudi cities of Riyadh, Jeddah, and Dhahran.
Tuesday’s drone strikes and subsequent embassy closure follow similar actions by other U.S. missions in the region. On Monday, the U.S. Embassy in Kuwait canceled all regular and emergency consular appointments, announcing that the facility will remain closed until further notice. And in Jerusalem, the U.S. Embassy directed all personnel and their families to shelter in place until told otherwise.
Still, Washington maintains that Operation Epic Fury is a resounding success. According to U.S. Central Command, the U.S. military has struck more than 1,700 targets thus far, “prioritizing locations that pose an imminent threat.” “U.S. forces are hitting Iran surgically, overwhelmingly, and unapologetically,” Centcom wrote on Monday. “Operation Epic Fury is laser-focused on destroying Iranian offensive missiles.”
Trump told reporters on Tuesday that the U.S. military has “knocked out” Iran’s navy, air force, air detection capabilities, and radar systems.
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What We’re Following
Humanitarian fallout. Afghan and Pakistani forces clashed at several points along their shared border on Tuesday in some of the worst fighting between the two adversaries in years. Between Feb. 26—the day before Islamabad said it was in “open war” with the Taliban—and March 2, the United Nations’ mission in Afghanistan recorded at least 42 civilians killed and 104 injured, including women and children, inside the country due to the fighting.
It is unclear how many civilians have been killed or wounded inside Pakistan. This also does not include the hundreds of Afghan and Pakistani troops that both sides have claimed to have killed, though assessments of their own fatalities remain low.
Humanitarian organizations have warned that the outbreak of war—alongside threats of spillover violence from U.S. and Israeli strikes on Iran—could exacerbate the region’s precarious humanitarian situation. Less than a week of fighting has already displaced roughly 20,000 Afghan families, the World Food Program estimated on Tuesday, leaving some 160,000 people impacted by suspended emergency food distributions.
A shift in military strategy may further escalate the conflict. At the war’s onset, both sides largely targeted smaller military facilities, such as ammunition depots and outposts. But on Tuesday, Pakistani Information Minister Attaullah Tarar confirmed to Reuters that on Sunday, Islamabad had successfully damaged Bagram Air Base, a prized military asset of the Taliban regime.
Mixed European response. Trump hosted German Chancellor Friedrich Merz at the White House on Tuesday, during which he praised Berlin for its response to the strikes on Iran. Specifically, Trump lauded Germany’s decision to allow U.S. forces to use some German military bases, even as Merz maintains that Berlin will not boost its own military presence in the Middle East nor take part in any offensive actions.
But while “some of the European nations have been helpful, some haven’t,” Trump said. Among the White House’s European allies, the U.S. president had particularly harsh words for Spain and the United Kingdom. Trump called Madrid “very, very uncooperative,” citing the country’s resistance to allowing U.S. forces to use Spanish bases for strikes against Tehran. “We’re going to cut off all trade with Spain. We don’t want anything to do with Spain,” Trump added.
Similarly, Trump expressed anger toward British Prime Minister Keir Starmer for his initial decision not to let U.S. planes use U.K. military bases to attack Iran. (However, Starmer later agreed to let the United States use British bases to launch strikes on Iranian ballistic missiles and their storage sites, but not other targets.)
Greater collaboration. South Korea and the Philippines agreed on Tuesday to bolster bilateral defense and shipbuilding cooperation as the two countries seek to deepen their ties. This includes increasing collaboration in artificial intelligence, nuclear power, and supply chain development. Several memorandums of understanding were also signed regarding intellectual property, agriculture, education, and digital technology.
Manila and Seoul “recognize growing uncertainty in geopolitical developments,” Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. said on Tuesday while hosting South Korean President Lee Jae-myung. Both leaders agreed to uphold a rules-based international order and vowed to work together on critical minerals. To represent Seoul’s commitment to the partnership, Lee gifted Marcos a model of a traditional Korean turtle ship plated with pure gold.
Meanwhile, South Korean defense stocks recorded massive gains on Tuesday. Hanwha Aerospace, which is Seoul’s largest defense manufacturer, saw shares surge nearly 25 percent while Korea Aerospace Industries rose more than 12 percent before both fell to roughly 20 percent and 3.2 percent gains for the day, respectively.
Odds and Ends
Talk about being far from home. A juvenile crocodile was spotted in the temperate Australian city of Newcastle on Saturday—some 1,200 miles from its natural habitat. Authorities were initially skeptical about the reported sighting; Billy Collett, the manager of the Australian Reptile Park, at first thought that the images were AI-generated. But police confirmed on Sunday that a freshwater croc was indeed moseying along in the local Ironbark Creek. The reptile, believed to have been a released pet, will stay at the Australian Reptile Park until officials assign it a permanent home.
