With hours to go until President Donald Trump’s self-imposed deadline for Iran to accept a ceasefire deal and allow free maritime traffic through the Strait of Hormuz or risk attacks on the country’s civilian infrastructure, the U.S. State Department is warning Americans to avoid travel to the Middle East or to shelter in place if they are already there.
The department posted a series of warnings to an official X account belonging to the Bureau of Consular Affairs on Tuesday advising Americans to “reconsider travel to Saudi Arabia,” including Muslim-Americans considering traveling to the kingdom as part of the traditional Muslim pilgrimage to Mecca.
“Due to the ongoing security situation and intermittent travel disruptions, we advise reconsidering participation in Hajj this year,” the department said. It added that Saudi Arabia will require anyone attempting to visit Mecca, the holiest site in the Islamic faith, to show a “Hajj permit” issued to pilgrims visiting Mecca, a Mecca residency ID or a Mecca work permit starting on April 18.
Separately, the department posted alerts advising Americans in Bahrain to shelter-in-place and said U.S. government employees in Bahrain are being directed to do the same “until further notice.”
“To the extent possible, remain in a secure structure, and stay away from windows. Have a supply of food, water, medications and other essential items. Please continue to check your email for additional information or last-minute changes,” the department said.
The department also has Level Three travel warnings in place advising Americans to “reconsider travel” to other countries in the Middle East region, including the United Arab Emirates, Jordan, Egypt and Qatar as well as Israel, Gaza and the West Bank.
The travel warnings come after weeks of aerial bombardment of Iran by U.S. and Israeli warplanes, as well as retaliatory attacks by Iran against American allies and bases in the region.
Earlier on Tuesday, Trump took to social media to warn that Iran’s millennia-old “civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again” unless Tehran capitulates to his demands.
“A whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again. I don’t want that to happen, but it probably will. However, now that we have Complete and Total Regime Change, where different, smarter, and less radicalized minds prevail, maybe something revolutionarily wonderful can happen, WHO KNOWS?,” Trump wrote on Truth Social Tuesday morning.
The U.S. president has set a Tuesday night deadline for the deal. The president’s latest threat represents a major escalation in his rhetoric against Tehran, which has for weeks included explicit threats to commit war crimes by attacking Iranian civilian infrastructure, including power plants and desalination plants that provide the country’s population of 90 million with fresh water.
Tehran’s permanent representative to the United Nations, Amir-Saeid Iravani, said in response that Iran would “not stand idle in the face of such egregious war crimes” and warned that his country would “exercise without hesitation its inherent right of self-defense, and will take immediate and proportionate reciprocal measures.”
