Why is the US evacuating diplomats and their families from Saudi Arabia now?

Is this just another travel warning, or something bigger? It’s bigger. Washington has told all its embassy staff and their families to actually leave Saudi Arabia, not just avoid travelling there.

A diplomatic source told AFP on Wednesday that the order covers everyone attached to the US embassy in Riyadh. It comes as Saudi Arabia keeps getting hit by attacks from Yemen’s Houthi group, something we’ve been tracking since the Riyadh airport attack toll rose to 12 dead and over 300 hurt earlier this month.

What exactly did Washington order?

According to the diplomatic source, the instruction is clear: all American embassy staff in Saudi Arabia, along with their families, must leave the country. This isn’t a suggestion or a travel advisory. It’s a direct order to depart.

The same source said the US also ordered families of embassy staff to leave four other countries in the region: the United Arab Emirates, Jordan, Qatar and Bahrain. Kuwait wasn’t mentioned in this particular order, but it sits in the same neighbourhood, so it’s worth reading closely if you live here or have family visiting the Gulf.

Why now? The Houthi attacks

Saudi Arabia has come under sustained attack from Yemen’s Houthis in recent weeks. We’ve covered several of these incidents, including the missile debris that fell over Riyadh injuring people and damaging homes, and the projectile that hit Najran, hurting six and damaging several houses.

Just this week, as we reported on 21 October, four hostile drones were intercepted over Madinah. The Houthis, for their part, have denied launching drones towards Medina, a claim that stands in contrast to what Saudi authorities have reported.

This pattern of attacks goes back to early October, when a drone targeted a power station near Madinah’s Grand Mosque. Since then, the region has seen a steady rise in incidents, which likely explains why Washington has decided to pull its people out rather than wait and see.

What this means if you live in Kuwait

Kuwait wasn’t named in this specific US order. But the US embassy in Kuwait has already warned Americans here about Mideast flight risks, and a separate alert warned Americans more broadly of travel disruption risk as tensions in the Gulf rise. If you’re an American citizen in Kuwait, or you have family travelling through Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Jordan, Qatar or Bahrain, this is a good moment to check your travel plans and watch for updates from your embassy.

For everyone else in Kuwait, citizens and expats alike, this is mostly a signal of how seriously Washington is taking the security situation next door. It doesn’t mean Kuwait is facing the same threat, but it does mean the wider region is tense, and flight routes through Saudi airspace could keep being affected, as we saw when flights into Riyadh were suspended after the airport attack.

You can follow our ongoing coverage of the wider situation on our International news page, where we’re tracking these developments as they happen.

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