US orders non-emergency consular staff in Karachi, Lahore to leave Pakistan
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The US State Department ordered government employees and their family members at the consulates to leave Pakistan due to “safety risks".
PHOTO: EPA
WASHINGTON - The United States said on March 4 that it has ordered non-emergency staff at two Pakistani consulates to leave the country and granted permission for staff to leave missions in Saudi Arabia, Cyprus and Oman as Iran retaliates over US-Israeli raids.
The State Department ordered non-emergency US government employees and their family members at the consulates in Lahore and Karachi to leave Pakistan due to “safety risks”, said the US embassy in Islamabad in a statement.
It said there was no change to the embassy’s status.
At least 25 people died in weekend protests in Pakistan against the US-Israeli attack on Iran, according to an AFP tally, with hundreds of protesters attempting to storm the consulate in Karachi, the country’s most populous city.
The State Department also authorised non-emergency US government employees and their families to leave Saudi Arabia, Oman and Cyprus and asked Americans to reconsider travelling to all three countries.
The US advice on Cyprus is unusual for an EU member state.
The move came after Iranian-made drones, likely fired by Iranian-backed movement Hezbollah in Lebanon, targeted a British military base in Cyprus, which historically has maintained a non-aligned foreign policy.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio on March 4 spoke by telephone with the Cypriot Foreign Minister Constantinos Kombos and “reaffirmed the strong partnership” between the two countries, said State Department spokesman Tommy Pigott.
A drone also damaged the US embassy in the Saudi capital Riyadh.
The US State Department said it is planning charter flights to take Americans out of the region, with citizens until now relying on commercial flights that have been severely disrupted by the war.
The US and Israel launched the attack on Feb 28 and quickly killed Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, two days after US envoys had been speaking to Iran in Geneva on a nuclear accord.
Since then, Iran has expanded its retaliatory missile and drone barrage across the Middle East. AFP
