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Politics : Foreign Affairs Discussion Group -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Dayuhan who wrote (73726)	2/14/2003 1:28:13 AM
From: Karen Lawrence	Respond to of 281500

US asks non-essential diplomatic staff to leave Riyadh According to an embassy spokesman in Riyadh, only a quarter of the families are considering leaving By Michel Cousins, Arab News Staff JEDDAH, 14 February 2003 — The US State Department yesterday told non-essential staff at the US Embassy in Riyadh and the American consulates in Jeddah and Dhahran that they could return home if they feel they want to. The authorization also covers non-essential US diplomatic staff in Qatar and Bahrain. The move comes two weeks after US diplomats’ dependants in the Kingdom and Kuwait were authorized to return home if they wanted to leave and the announcement earlier this week authorizing the departure of dependants and non-essential staff at US missions in Jordan, Syria, Lebanon and Israel. Authorization means that the US government will pay for flights home. Half of the 200 Americans working at the US Embassy in Riyadh are regarded as non-essential. The percentage is the same at the Dhahran consulate. The warning comes as Americans remained jittery at home over the risk of terror attacks, with the United States maintaining a Code Orange, “high risk” of attack status, for a sixth day. Counterterrorism officials said the level of “threat information” pointing to an imminent attack remained high but steady. Arabs and Muslims throughout the Middle East have been protesting America’s support for Israel in its ongoing conflict with the Palestinians and Washington’s war plans against Iraq over claims that Baghdad is not complying with UN Security Council resolutions concerning disarmament. US diplomats are concerned not to panic the many thousands of Americans based in Saudi Arabia, or convey the image that they are pulling out in advance of an attack on Iraq. “This is voluntary,” insisted a spokesman at the Jeddah consulate yesterday. “It permits them to go if they so choose, but it is not an order.” Up to a third of those working in the Jeddah consulate are covered by the latest travel warning and could return home if they wished, he told Arab News, but he did not expect any sudden or mass exodus. Many would opt to stay for the moment, he added. There was no rush to leave following earlier advice that dependants could leave. According to an embassy spokesman in Riyadh, only a quarter of the families are considering leaving. Five have left out of the three dozen families based at the Jeddah consulate, and in Dhahran only one US diplomatic family has chosen to go, and even they waited until the school vacation started. arabnews.com