{"id":655351,"date":"2026-10-24T02:00:10","date_gmt":"2026-10-24T02:00:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/655351\/"},"modified":"2026-10-24T02:00:10","modified_gmt":"2026-10-24T02:00:10","slug":"us-intelligence-warns-of-iranian-assassination-plots-prompting-evacuations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/655351\/","title":{"rendered":"US intelligence warns of Iranian assassination plots, prompting evacuations"},"content":{"rendered":"

US intelligence warned that Iran<\/a> has “substantially increased” its efforts to target American diplomats and officials across the Middle East, with assassination plots reaching “advanced stages,” Axios reported Saturday.<\/p>\n

According to Axios, the intelligence reportedly prompted Washington to accelerate the evacuation of diplomatic personnel and their families from missions throughout the region amid concerns over Iranian assassination plots.<\/p>\n

The warning was detailed in an October 23 intelligence memo from US Director of National Intelligence Jay Clayton to US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, amid growing concerns over regional escalation.<\/p>\n

Separately, CNN reported early Saturday morning that the State Department was accelerating diplomatic evacuations across the region amid fears of regional escalation and renewed US and Israeli military strikes on Iran<\/a>.<\/p>\n

According to CNN, the State Department ordered nonessential personnel and their families to leave Saudi Arabia<\/a>, while quietly reducing staffing levels at US embassies in Jordan, Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, and Lebanon.<\/p>\n

\"TheThe US Embassy headquarters in Abu Dhabi is pictured on March 3, 2026. (credit: Ryan Lim \/ AFP via Getty Images)<\/p>\n

American diplomats described the evacuation process as “chaotic and frustrating” to CNN, with many staff members and their families having only recently returned to the region after being evacuated during the previous war with Iran.<\/p>\n

A source familiar with the situation described the latest evacuations as \u201cjust as much of a sh** show\u201d as the evacuation process when the war began earlier this year.<\/p>\n

\u201cA lot of people are hearing about it through the news instead of their leadership at post,\u201d the source added.<\/p>\n

The American Foreign Service Association, the union representing US Foreign Service officers, said it had received reports \u201cof bureaucratic ping-pong\u201d surrounding the evacuation process.<\/p>\n

Foreign Service personnel have also raised concerns about the financial burden of relocating their families again, saying the government has not provided sufficient assistance to cover the costs.<\/p>\n

One US diplomat said the financial support offered so far was inadequate to cover the expenses of moving an entire family out of the region.<\/p>\n

State Department orders personnel to leave Saudi Arabia<\/p>\n

US officials told Reuters earlier this week that the State Department had ordered some diplomats and family members to leave its missions in Saudi Arabia and was planning to withdraw family members from several other US diplomatic missions in the region.<\/p>\n

State Department spokesperson Tommy Pigott said in a post on X\/Twitter that the department had ordered the departure of “non-emergency US government employees and their family members in Saudi Arabia only,” amid attacks by the Iran-aligned Houthis in Yemen<\/a> on civilian targets in the kingdom.<\/p>\n

Trump raises possibility of renewed military action against Iran<\/p>\n

The reports come after US President Donald Trump suggested at a midterm election rally in Florida that Washington could launch another military operation against Iran, as the war approaches its eighth month and rising fuel prices weigh on the US midterm elections.<\/p>\n

“We may do another little Epic Fury,” Trump said during the rally, referring to the US military operation against Iran. He did not elaborate.<\/p>\n

Reuters contributed to this report.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"US intelligence warned that Iran has “substantially increased” its efforts to target American diplomats and officials across the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":655352,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[54,42,8954,87,47,43,78,13931,40,38,41,39,1032,88482,2893],"class_list":["post-655351","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-donald-trump","tag-headlines","tag-houthis","tag-iran","tag-middle-east","tag-news","tag-saudi-arabia","tag-state-department","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories","tag-united-states","tag-us-embassy","tag-yemen"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/655351","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=655351"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/655351\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/655352"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=655351"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=655351"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=655351"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}