Oct 24 (Reuters) – Iran intensified its efforts to reach U.S. citizens and officials, and Tehran’s deadly plans against Americans had reached “advanced” stages, a senior Trump administration intelligence official warned in a memo obtained by Reuters.
The alert from National Intelligence Director Jay Clayton was issued after Washington reduced the staffing at its mission in Saudi Arabia this week, in response to the escalation of attacks by Iran-aligned Houthi forces.
These attacks, on one front of the regional conflict that has lasted nearly eight months and was triggered by the war involving Iran, coincided with an uptick in attacks on commercial vessels in the Strait of Hormuz.
Earlier this month, sources told Reuters that Iran was preparing a more forceful response should the United States resume large-scale military attacks on its territory.
“Specifically, through several channels, we have intelligence that Iran has substantially stepped up its efforts to target U.S. officials,” Clayton wrote to the U.S. Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, in a message dated October 23.
“Iranian efforts to plan deadly attacks against U.S. citizens have reached advanced stages both in the Middle East and in some other countries,” he added.
The CIA Director, John Ratcliffe, also received a copy of the non-confidential memo, initially released by Axios.
On Wednesday, the U.S. Department of State ordered the departure of non-essential government personnel and their families from American diplomatic missions in Saudi Arabia and planned to remove family members from several other missions in the region, U.S. officials told Reuters.
This Saturday, the State Department updated travel alerts for more than a dozen Gulf and Middle Eastern countries, including Saudi Arabia, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Iraq and Israel, citing the increased threat posed by Iran-aligned Houthis.
“When it comes to personnel at our embassies, we continually assess new information about the security environment,” said a U.S. official.
“The threat of attacks by the Houthis and of alleged Iranian terrorist plots against American officials is guiding our decisions on staffing adjustments at embassies operating under Restricted Operations Status (RO Status) in the region,” said the official.
Restricted Operations Status gives the State Department greater flexibility to make staffing decisions without having to publicly announce a change in the operational status of a diplomatic mission.
The Iran-related conflict is about to enter its ninth month and has significantly pressured the approval ratings of U.S. President Donald Trump on the eve of the midterm congressional elections scheduled for November 3.
(Reporting by Enas Alashray and Humeyra Pamuk)
