Middle East travel warnings expanded as tensions between US and Iran increase

More countries have told citizens to leave Iran and the surrounding region as airlines scale back flights amid mounting tensions between Washington and Tehran.As a day of critical talks over Iran’s nuclear programme was set to begin, and as a vast US military buildup continued in the Middle East, the Trump administration warned of drastic consequences if Iranian negotiators failed to make significant concessions.Australia told dependants of diplomats in Israel and Lebanon to leave the two countries, its foreign ministry said on Wednesday.The Australian government has also offered voluntary departures to dependants of diplomats in the United Arab Emirates, Qatar and Jordan amid what the foreign ministry described as a “deteriorating security situation in the region”.The US itself pulled non-essential officials and eligible family members from its embassy in Lebanon earlier this week, citing a review of the “security environment”.The US president and his officials maintain that Iran is rebuilding its nuclear weapons programme, and must stop.JD Vance, the vice-president, told reporters on Wednesday: “The principle is very simple: Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon.” Of the negotiations, Marco Rubio, the US secretary of state, said: “I would say that the Iranian insistence on not discussing ballistic missiles is a big, big problem.”Tehran has repeatedly pushed back against Donald Trump’s bellicose rhetoric, accusing him of “big lies” and expressing hope that negotiations may pave the way for an agreement.For weeks, heightened fears of a military conflict between the US and Iran have prompted airlines to suspend flights to and over countries in the region.KLM said announced that it would temporarily suspend flights between Amsterdam and Tel Aviv as of 1 March. The Dutch arm of the airline group Air France KLM did not explicitly cite the US-Iranian tensions on Wednesday, but said in a statement it was not “commercially or operationally feasible” to operate flights to Tel Aviv.Australia is the latest government to start withdrawing dependants of diplomatic personnel and non-essential staff from some locations in the Middle East, or advising citizens to defer travel to Iran, amid rising tensions.Cyprus, Germany, India, Poland, Serbia and Sweden have told nationals in Iran to leave. Singapore advised citizens to continue to defer all travel to the country.Brazil recommended last week that its citizens leave Iran, after a similar alert to its citizens in Lebanon in January. The government last year recommended that Brazilians not travel to the two countries.Reuters contributed to this report