U.S. orders diplomats to leave Saudi Arabia amid Houthi attacks

The U.S. is ordering some of its diplomats to leave Saudi Arabia. It comes amid continued attacks by the Iranian-aligned Houthis. They have hit Saudi airports repeatedly and their oil infrastructure. Crystal Gomansingh joining us on this. Crystal, when the Americans pull out diplomats, you do have to wonder if escalation in the war may be imminent. It is a question that is being asked right across the region today as everyone is waiting for something to happen. Frankly, it has been telegraphed for a number of months by U.S. President Donald Trump that there would be some sort of attack on Iran potentially. He has said in the past it would come after the Israeli elections, after the midterm elections. But we're looking at some issues that are starting to rise that could give us a signal that something could happen. One of those is the fact that in the United States at embassies right across Saudi Arabia, the State Department spokesperson has confirmed that non-emergency staff yesterday were told that they should leave along with their families. Now, there was some question about whether this was just in Saudi Arabia or at other locations. But according to that State Department official and a post on X, it is just Saudi Arabia. I want to read a little bit of that post to you about why they are doing this. The spokesperson saying Iranian supported Houthis have increasingly engaged in hostilities against Saudi Arabia, including attacks on civilian airports and other critical infrastructure resulting in civilian casualties and severe travel disruptions now we know that the Houthi rebels just today have confirmed saying that they have attacked a number of cities in Saudi Arabia including the capital we are also hearing from the Reuters news agency that the Saudi national oil and natural gas company Aramco has told all of its workers at its headquarters in Saudi Arabia to work from home. That is the first time that has happened since the U.S. and Israel started attacking Iran. And then we saw sort of attacks right across the region as a result. So there are some concerning developments that people are paying close attention to with the suggestion that this could mean something bigger is coming. Of course, tensions are always simmering here in the Middle East, David. The U.S. had been previously asked to help strike the Houthis in Yemen, but then didn't get involved most recently. Is this because midterms are coming up and that war is just unpopular? It is a terribly unpopular war. There's also, of course, all of the pressure on U.S. President Donald Trump when it comes to the price of diesel and how to bring those prices down. Of course, there's also pressure on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu here in terms of if he will in fact win the election or if the anti-Netanyahu bloc will end up being victorious next week. What we are hearing is that nothing has been confirmed, obviously, American officials saying they do not telegraph any of their plans. However, there are American media reports saying that there are troop buildups in some areas. NBC is reporting that troops are being pulled out of some American bases in the region, specifically in Jordan, in Qatar, and in Kuwait. We are also hearing from U.S. State, sorry, U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth. He was in the region and said, yes, he recently met with Israeli officials, but gave very few other details. Take a listen. As you know, we've worked with the Israeli military quite a bit. That's nothing new. We have for a long time. and they have great capabilities, and we appreciate their contributions to ensuring Iran never gets a nuclear weapon. I was there visiting our troops, had a chance to talk to the prime minister, of course. So all we know there is that there were meetings, there were discussions. That doesn't tell us a whole lot, but obviously people paying close attention, given what the president has said in the past, that Iran would be dealt with at some point in the near future. so questions being raised about is this a beginning signal with those embassy staff members being moved out of Saudi Arabia, David Christopher Coman Singh, I appreciate it very much Thank you