According to Hamshahri, citing AFP, the US ordered embassy personnel and their families in Saudi Arabia to leave the country. The report is attributed to a diplomatic source and does not provide a specific date for when the order was issued. IRNA also relayed the same AFP report, characterizing the source as "a diplomatic source."
Donya-ye Eqtesad presented the issue within a different frame, citing Reuters: according to unnamed sources quoted by the news agency, the US State Department is "preparing" for some embassy personnel and their families in Persian Gulf countries to receive evacuation orders—meaning that the Reuters version Donya-ye Eqtesad reported describes a preparatory phase, not a completed process. According to Donya-ye Eqtesad, AFP also reported that embassy staff and family members at the United Arab Emirates, Jordan, Qatar, and Bahrain missions received evacuation orders. The same report mentioned that Israeli newspaper Haaretz claimed that a US-Israeli strike on Iran could begin within the next 72 hours; this claim has not been verified or confirmed by any other source.
Ettelaat addressed the issue with the question "Is the US evacuating its forces and diplomats from Middle East bases?" and reported, citing some sources, that a reduction in the number of US military personnel in the region's bases is occurring at a time when Donald Trump is evaluating a new military action against Iran. The reports were distributed on Wednesday (29 Mehr 1405 / October 21, 2026); no official statement from the US State Department was directly quoted in the Iranian press coverage.
How the Persian press covered it
| Source (orientation) | Headline / framing |
|---|---|
| Hamshahri / IRNA (moderate-traditionalist / state news agency) | Based on AFP, reported the order as already issued, specifically regarding Saudi Arabia. |
| Donya-ye Eqtesad (economic daily, technocratic) | Citing Reuters, characterized the process as "preparatory"; also included Haaretz's unverified 72-hour strike claim. |
| Ettelaat (moderate conservative) | Used a question-format headline to link the development to Trump's possible new military action. |
Context
In March 2026, during the "12-day war," the US issued a similar mandatory evacuation order for its embassies in Riyadh, Kuwait, and the UAE following drone strikes; the official rationale for that order was the threat of potential Iranian drone and missile attacks, armed conflict, and terrorism risk against US interests. Regional tensions have continued to escalate intermittently since then. This week also saw reports of a carrier strike group being dispatched to the region and a drone attack on Saudi Arabia's Safaniyah oil field (related news); in the same days, the Mecca Pact between Turkey, Saudi Arabia, and Pakistan was submitted to the Turkish Parliament (related news). At the time this article was prepared, the original English reports from AFP and Reuters could not be independently accessed; the information is based on Iranian press attributions to these two agencies and should therefore be read with caution.
