State Dept. tells Americans stranded in Middle East it can't evacuate them

Operation Epic Fury launched on Feb. 28, 2026. Within 72 hours, the State Department had issued urgent departure advisories covering 16 Middle Eastern countries — from Israel and Lebanon to the Gulf states. The advisories told Americans to leave immediately. But airspace across Iraq, Iran, Israel, Kuwait, Qatar, and Bahrain was closed by Iranian missile and drone activity, leaving no commercial flight options for most of the region.

Americans who called the State Department's Citizens Emergency Center hotline on March 3 heard an automated message stating: 'Please do not rely on the U.S. government for assisted departure or evacuation. At this time, there are currently no United States evacuation points.' The message was playing on a loop. No consular officer answered. The hotline, which exists specifically for Americans in distress abroad, was routing callers to a recording that told them the government couldn't help.

Ben-Gurion International Airport in Tel Aviv closed after Iranian missile strikes damaged approach infrastructure and Israeli air defense operations made commercial approaches unsafe. It was the primary exit route for the estimated 100,000 American citizens living in Israel and the tens of thousands of tourists and business travelers in the country. U.S. Ambassador MHMike Huckabee issued a statement telling Americans there were 'VERY LIMITED options' for departure and suggested they consider bus routes to Egypt through the Sinai Peninsula — a road that passes through active conflict zones and Egyptian military checkpoints with no U.S. assistance at any point along the route.

Two Iranian drones struck the outer compound of the U.S. Embassy in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia on March 3, causing structural damage to an outer building. No personnel were killed or injured. The State Department immediately closed the Saudi embassy to the public and suspended consular services. The attack was part of Iran's broader Gulf retaliation campaign targeting U.S. diplomatic and military facilities across the region.

The U.S. Embassy in Amman, Jordan was evacuated on March 2 after intelligence assessments indicated Iranian-backed groups were preparing attacks on diplomatic facilities in the Jordanian capital. By March 3, the U.S. had pulled non-emergency personnel and their dependents from six countries total: Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain, and Iraq. Embassies in all four Gulf states were running on skeleton staffs, unable to process consular requests for the Americans in each country.

The scale of the diplomatic pullback was without precedent in the region since the start of the 2003 Iraq War. Unlike 2003 — where the State Department had months to plan civilian departures and the embassies themselves were not under attack — the March 2026 drawdown unfolded simultaneously across six countries within 72 hours of the war's start. No government evacuation points were established in any of the six countries.

Sen. Andy Kim (D-NJ), a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee whose district has a large Korean-American community with family members throughout the Gulf, said his office was receiving 'wave after wave' of panicked calls from Americans in the UAE, Qatar, Iraq, and Israel who had called the State Department and been told there was no help. Kim's account was corroborated by other members of Congress who reported similar constituent contact. Kim demanded a Senate hearing on what the government's legal obligation to citizens abroad is when the U.S. itself initiates the conflict.

Americans in Iran faced a categorically different situation. The U.S. has had no diplomatic presence in Iran since severing relations in the aftermath of the 1979 hostage crisis. There is no U.S. Embassy, no consular section, no emergency hotline, and no official government point of contact. Americans in Iran — including an estimated 2,000 to 4,000 dual citizens, plus journalists, aid workers, and academics — had to rely on the Swiss Embassy, which has historically represented U.S. interests in Iran, and had no formal communication channel with 🌲Washington.

The State Department's Bureau of Consular Affairs confirmed it had established contact with approximately 3,000 Americans in the region by March 3. But confirmation of contact is different from confirmation of assistance: the department could reach people to tell them no evacuation was available, but could not provide the evacuation itself. White House Press Secretary KLKaroline Leavitt cited the 3,000-contact figure as evidence of a functioning response — a framing that senators from both parties disputed.

The crisis exposed a structural gap between the expectations Americans have of their government in a war zone and what the law actually requires. The State Department is not legally required to evacuate every American abroad — its statutory obligation runs to providing consular assistance, not guaranteed extraction. The distinction between legal obligation and civic expectation collapsed when the government that started the war was the same government that told stranded Americans it couldn't help.