The United States has ordered non-essential diplomatic staff and their families to leave Saudi Arabia as Houthi attacks from Yemen escalate, after strikes on an Aramco oil site and an eastern airport killed at least four people on Wednesday.
Despite State Department denials of a broader regional pullback, four US officials and a diplomatic source confirmed that families stationed in the UAE, Jordan, Qatar and Bahrain were also told to leave, pointing to a wider precautionary withdrawal across the Gulf.
Oil prices jumped in response to the airport attack, with Brent crude climbing above $110 a barrel and West Texas Intermediate trading around $98, as markets priced in the risk of further disruption to energy infrastructure in the region.
The deepening instability is tied to broader tensions with Iran, with the US and Israeli militaries reported to have drawn up specific plans for renewed strikes on Iran following next month's midterm elections, according to US officials cited in reporting on the matter.
The combination of an active Houthi bombing campaign, a confirmed death toll on Saudi soil, and reported preparations for a new round of US-Israeli action against Iran marks a significant escalation from the lower-intensity attacks that had characterized the conflict in recent months.
With diplomatic staff being withdrawn across multiple Gulf states even as Washington publicly downplays the scope of the move, the situation points to a region bracing for the possibility of a substantially wider conflict in the weeks ahead.
