US Orders Non-Essential Personnel Back From Lebanon Embassy

The U.S. State Department has ordered the withdrawal of non-essential personnel from the U.S. embassy in Lebanon amid heightened security concerns. “We continuously assess the security environment, and based on our latest review, we determined it prudent to reduce our footprint to essential personnel,” a senior State Department official told The Epoch Times on Feb. 23. While the State Department official did not specify the security concerns that prompted the staff drawdown at the embassy in Beirut, the move comes amid mounting tensions between the United States and Iran. For weeks, U.S. forces have been amassing across the Middle East, as President Donald Trump has called on Tehran to submit to new security constraints. The president has threatened military action if no deal is reached, and Iranian officials have warned they could respond in ways that would spread the conflict across the Middle East....