State Dept Issues ‘Worldwide Caution’ Alert As Tensions In The Middle East Soar

Washington D.C./19.10.23/Turan: The United States on Tuesday issued a 'worldwide caution' alert due to soaring tensions in the Middle East and elsewhere triggered by the ongoing Israel-Hamas war, TURAN's Washington correspondent reports.

"Due to increased tensions in various locations around the world, the potential for terrorist attacks, demonstrations or violent actions against U.S. citizens and interests, the Department of State advises U.S. citizens overseas to exercise increased caution," reads the State Department's release.

The move came as Secretary Antony Blinken just returned to Washington from an eight-day trip through the Middle East, where he, per the State Department officials, made a number of things clear: that the U.S strongly supports Israel and its right to defend itself from Hamas, and that support the aspirations of the Palestinian people, who are the victims of Hamas’s acts of terrorism; and that Washington believes it is important to establish mechanisms to keep civilians in Gaza out of harm’s way and provide them with humanitarian assistance.

Upon his return to Washington, Blinken on Thursday met with bipartisan members of congressional leadership  to brief them on the trip.

Asked by TURAN what the Secretary was hoping to achieve in the days and weeks ahead, Matthew Miller said, preventing the conflict from widening was "number one" priority.

"You’ve seen us, as a government, send very clear messages to other entities hostile to Israel both through the – what the President has said, what the Secretary has said, and by the fact that we have deployed two carrier strike groups to the region. We want to send a very clear message to other countries or other entities that they should not enter this conflict." 

The second thing the U.S. is trying to do is to secure the release of hostages, according to Miller. "There are a number of Americans who remain unaccounted for, and we know that some of those unaccounted for are hostages, and we want to secure their release." 

The U.S. also wants to continue to work diplomatically to get humanitarian assistance into Gaza for innocent civilians, Miller concluded.

Alex Raufoglu