The State Department is directing U.S. embassies across the Middle East to draft plans for continuing operations with only a small number of staff on the ground, according to sources familiar with the matter, as the war between the United States and Iran shows no signs of resolution nearly six months after it began.
Personnel who have been displaced from their posts in the region are also increasingly being given the option to curtail their assignments altogether, the sources said, a sign that the department does not expect a swift return to pre-war staffing levels. The plans have not been finalized, and it remains unclear whether they will ultimately be implemented at every embassy currently operating on reduced staffing.
A State Department spokesperson said the agency does not discuss “internal deliberations or post-specific contingency planning,” but noted that it “continually reviews the security and staffing posture at every diplomatic mission based on conditions on the ground and adjusts personnel levels as appropriate.” The spokesperson added that “the safety and security of our personnel and their families remains the Department’s top priority as we continue to assess conditions across the region,” and said decisions on the status of any post are made in “close coordination between posts and Washington.”
A War Without a Resolution
The war between the U.S., Israel and Iran began on February 28, 2026, with coordinated American and Israeli strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities, military leadership and infrastructure. Within days, the State Department urged Americans to depart immediately from more than a dozen countries across the region, citing severe safety risks amid retaliatory Iranian missile and drone attacks on U.S. bases and allied nations. Roughly 1 million Americans were estimated to be living or traveling in the region at the time.
Almost six months later, diplomatic efforts to end the conflict have repeatedly stalled. A memorandum of understanding between the two sides has collapsed, more than a week of renewed strikes broke out at the end of July, and a push for an agreement to fully reopen the Strait of Hormuz has yet to succeed, leaving the region — and the diplomats stationed there — in prolonged limbo.
From Ordered Departure to Reduced Operations
Before the war began, the State Department had reduced staffing at only two of its Middle East posts: Lebanon, which was under ordered departure, and Israel, which was under authorized departure — meaning nonemergency personnel and family members could choose to leave but were not required to. Within weeks of the first strikes, as U.S. diplomatic facilities across the region came under direct attack from Iran and its proxies, the department ordered nonemergency personnel and families out of Bahrain, Iraq, Jordan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.
The U.S. Embassy in Kuwait suspended operations entirely in March and did not resume even emergency services for Americans until late June; it remains under ordered departure today. The embassy in Oman remains under authorized departure. Congressional records from early March described embassies in Riyadh, Kuwait, Dubai and elsewhere as having come under direct attack in the war’s opening days, with the Saudi Arabia embassy reportedly struck by drone fire that damaged part of its roof and the UAE consulate hit by a drone strike in its parking lot.
A Department Already Stretched Thin
The drawdown came as the State Department was already working with a diminished Near Eastern Affairs bureau. In the months before the war, the department had cut more than 1,300 positions — including over 1,100 civil servants and nearly 250 foreign service officers — as part of a broader reorganization, and recalled roughly 30 career diplomats from ambassadorial and senior posts worldwide. By the time the war began, the U.S. had no confirmed ambassador in Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Egypt, Kuwait, Algeria, Libya or Iraq.
Consular Affairs alone lost more than 150 positions to a combination of reductions in force, dismissals of probationary employees and retirements, according to a U.S. official cited in outside reporting, complicating the department’s ability to respond when the evacuation orders came. The department has said it has since offered assistance to nearly 50,000 Americans affected by the conflict and coordinated more than 60 evacuation flights out of the region.
Families Left to Improvise
The sudden staffing drawdown left diplomats and their families — many of whom had years remaining on their assignments — scrambling to secure housing and enroll children in school back in the United States, often with no clear timeline for how long the disruption would last. Because embassies’ staffing status remained uncertain, families were unable to make longer-term commitments upon returning home, knowing they could be called back to the Middle East on short notice if normal operations resumed.
One diplomatic spouse, who requested anonymity due to concerns of retaliation, said the family has been “hopping around to different housing situations this whole time” because they could not risk the financial consequences of signing — and potentially breaking — a long-term lease. “We’ve had evacuations in various parts of the world, but this is different in that there’s such a large portion of people from one part of the world with so many people coming back to one spot,” the spouse said.
Those displaced left behind not only their belongings but also the support networks of colleagues and friends built during an overseas posting. The spouse described feeling “a tremendous sadness” for “the people we care about and the work that we’re part of” in the region, adding: “We had no idea when we walked out of our house in March that we not only wouldn’t be returning in six months, but now the reality is, we won’t be returning at all.”
The 180-Day Limit and What Comes Next
Under State Department rules, a diplomatic post’s “ordered departure” status cannot be extended beyond 180 days. Once that threshold is reached without a return to normal operations, a post shifts into “restricted operations,” a designation that caps how many personnel can remain in-country. The department’s foreign affairs manual describes restricted status as “intended as a temporary measure to address safety and security,” but notes it “may continue as long as necessary to ensure that adequate safety and security measures are in place.”
For Middle East posts entering that phase, sources said restricted operations will likely mean that no children and few spouses will be permitted to return with diplomatic personnel. The State Department spokesperson said the agency remains “committed to supporting our workforce and their families throughout this process and will provide updates through appropriate channels as decisions are made.”
Former Diplomats Warn of Lasting Costs
Former officials say the extended drawdown carries consequences well beyond the diplomats themselves. John Bass, a former career diplomat who served as under secretary of state for management and previously as ambassador to Turkey, Georgia and Afghanistan, said reduced staffing limits what the department can accomplish on the ground. “When you have fewer people, there’s less you can do, and there’s a lot that you cannot do remotely,” Bass said.
“The fewer diplomats you have in country, the fewer people you have who are focused on what is happening in that country, in that government, keeping tabs on key issues for the United States,” Bass explained. “You’ve got fewer people there to be promoting the US government’s views on what is happening and why, and what is in our interests and the interests of that country, working together, to try to solve a common problem.” He added that even when senior leaders reach a broad agreement on an issue, it ultimately falls to experienced diplomats on the ground “to be able to really get into the details with that host government about how to move forward.”
Bass told reporters the restricted operations status now facing much of the region could potentially last “for months, if not years.”
State Department Pushes Back on “Limited” Characterization
The State Department disputed the notion that reduced staffing has constrained its diplomatic reach in the region. “We have seen sustained engagement from the highest levels of the Trump Administration with our partners in the Middle East, and our relationship with our allies in the region continues to get stronger,” the spokesperson said.
Still, with no finalized timeline for restoring full staffing, and with fighting between the U.S. and Iran continuing intermittently more than five months after the initial strikes, American diplomats displaced from the region — and the families who left with them — remain in an uncertain holding pattern, uncertain whether or when they might return to the posts they once called home.