The WSJ said dozens of diplomats were scheduled to take a repatriation flight over the weekend after the US State Department approved the voluntary departure of 'non-emergency personnel' [File: AFP]
As countries around the world prepare to battle a looming second wave of coronavirus infections, many United States diplomats are following hundreds of US citizens repatriated over the past few months.
Dozens of US diplomats, along with their families, have left Saudi Arabia in the past 48 hours as the kingdom struggles to contain the outbreak, just weeks after it reopened its economy, the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported on Friday.
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More are expected to fly out in the coming weeks, officials familiar with the plan told the WSJ, after the US State Department approved the voluntary departure of “non-emergency personnel”.
Despite Saudi Arabia’s efforts to contain the spread of the virus early on, the number of the cases in the country has surged past 200, 000 – up 110, 000 from May – according to figures published by the Johns Hopkins University. More than 1, 800 people there have died.
The uptick in the number of infections coincided with the kingdom’s move to lift restrictions in a bid to revive its economy, which has suffered from low oil prices.
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According to the WSJ, the COVID-19 virus managed to make its way into the US embassy in the capital, Riyadh, infecting at least 30 staff members. US officials said those infected were mostly non-Americans.
Sources added that a global voluntary departure decision by the State Department in March was suspended in May, leaving many diplomats “feeling trapped” amid rising infections.
The WSJ reported that the House Foreign Affairs Committee last month received an email forwarded by the House Intelligence Committee, which had been “contacted by an individual concerned about the spread of coronavirus in Saudi Arabia”, according to congressional aides with knowledge of the matter.
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Diplomats expressed concern about their safety as the pandemic “stretches Saudi Arabia’s healthcare system to its limits, ” the WSJ reported congressional aides and a US official as saying.
The lifting of some restrictions, not including inbound international flights and pilgrimages, has left Saudi hospitals struggling to cope with additional cases.
Despite the fact that the Saudi health ministry publishes daily updates on new infections and deaths, one US official said diplomats believe the authorities are treating the real number of cases like a “sensitive state secret”, fuelling concerns.
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According to the State Department’s coronavirus repatriation statistics, last updated on June 10, more than 100, 000 Americans have been repatriated since the start of the pandemic.
It is unclear how many US diplomats were repatriated from the Gulf region, but figures indicate that citizens were brought home from countries including Oman, Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates.
The US is the hardest-hit country in the number of recorded infections, with more than 2.8 million cases and nearly 130, 000 deaths.WASHINGTON — Inside the sprawling American Embassy compound in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, a coronavirus outbreak was spreading. Dozens of embassy employees became sick last month, and more than 20 others were quarantined after a birthday barbecue became a potential vector for the spread of the disease.
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A bleak analysis from within the embassy that circulated in closed channels in Riyadh and Washington late last month likened the coronavirus situation in Saudi Arabia to that of New York City in March, when an outbreak was set to explode. The assessment said the response from the Saudi government — a close partner of the Trump White House — was insufficient, even as hospitals were getting overwhelmed and health care workers were falling ill.
Some in the embassy even took the extraordinary step of conveying information to Congress outside official channels, saying that they did not believe the State Department’s leadership or the American ambassador to the kingdom, John P. Abizaid, were taking the situation seriously enough, and that most American Embassy employees and their families should be evacuated. The State Department took those steps months ago at missions elsewhere in the Middle East, Asia and Russia.
The episode, based on accounts from nine current and one former official, highlights the perils facing American diplomacy with a global pandemic still raging, and the frictions between front-line diplomats, intelligence officers and defense officials on one side and senior Trump administration officials on the other who are eager to preserve relations with nations like Saudi Arabia that have special ties with the Trump White House. The Saudi royal family has exercised enormous influence on Middle East and energy policies, as well as on controversial arms sales that President Trump has personally championed.
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The State Department appeared to react Saturday because of quiet bipartisan congressional pressure, announcing the “voluntary departure of nonemergency U.S. personnel and family members from the U.S. Mission to Saudi Arabia.” But some senior embassy officials see that as a half-measure. They had pushed for an evacuation of most of the 400 to 500 American employees at the Riyadh Embassy and two consulates, people with knowledge of the situation said.
In response to questions, the State Department said in a statement on Wednesday that it “has no higher priority than ensuring the safety of U.S. government personnel and U.S. citizens.” It said that the voluntary departure “is appropriate given current conditions associated with the pandemic” and that “the pandemic has affected mission staff and our community in Saudi Arabia.”
The Saudi royal family would not welcome any move by the American government to reduce the number of diplomats and intelligence officers in the kingdom amid the pandemic, said Douglas London, a former C.I.A. clandestine officer who served in numerous countries in the Middle East.
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“The Saudis have never been subtle in discouraging U.S. officials from outward actions that might cast the kingdom as appearing weak, incompetent or vulnerable in difficult times, ” he said.
He said that placating the kingdom was even more important for the Trump administration, which has made America’s relationship with the royal family a cornerstone of its foreign policy.
“As the State Department weighs the safety of American personnel and their dependents in the midst of the kingdom’s Covid outbreak, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and the White House remain more focused on the consequences to their relationship with de facto ruler Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman than the risks to Americans, private and official alike, ” he said.
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Mr. Trump has made strengthening America’s relationship with Saudi Arabia and its young crown prince a focus of his foreign policy. The president has strongly advocated American arms sales to Saudi Arabia, despite the kingdom’s role in leading an air war in Yemen that has killed thousands of civilians.
Mr. Trump’s son-in-law and senior adviser, Jared Kushner, maintains close ties to Crown Prince Mohammed, and the Trump administration is trying to push through sales to the kingdom of two arms and intelligence surveillance packages worth more than $500 million, despite a congressional freeze on the exports. Last year, the administration declared an “emergency” to bypass a congressional hold on sales of $8.1 billion of arms to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates — a potentially illegal action that became the focus of a State Department inspector general investigation.
The American Embassy in Riyadh, a walled enclave dotted with palm trees in the Diplomatic Quarter of the capital city, is one of the most important American diplomatic outposts in the Middle East and home to one of the biggest C.I.A. stations in the region. Hundreds of American diplomats, intelligence officers and their families live in the embassy compound and nearby residential complexes.
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The growing alarm in the American Embassy in recent weeks has come as Saudi Arabia and its neighbors struggle with a surge of coronavirus cases and embassy officials raise serious doubts about the kingdom’s readiness to deal with the pandemic.
The Saudi government announced it would drastically reduce the number of Muslims allowed to do the hajj, the annual pilgrimage that brings millions of people to Mecca to fulfill one of the requirements of the Islamic faith. It is believed to be the first time since the modern kingdom was founded in 1932 that the pilgrimage, scheduled to begin in late July, was effectively canceled. Dozens of members of the royal family fell ill this spring.
Saudi Arabia has reported about 4, 000 new cases of coronavirus per day, among the fastest-growing caseloads in the world. Despite that, the government has ended lockdown measures.
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The analysis that circulated in Washington, written by embassy staff members and reviewed by The New York Times, said that the cases were likely to spike through July and that there would probably be a shortage of hospital beds. The embassy’s own medical unit was already overwhelmed with the rise of coronavirus cases among mission employees and their families.
Around mid-June, the embassy’s emergency action committee, composed of senior officials at the diplomatic outpost, approved departure for “high-risk individuals, ” the message said, but the State Department had denied the request and advised the embassy “to do whatever it can to hold on until the Covid problem improves.” At the missions, working from home became the norm.
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