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US Extends Closure of Its Diplomatic Missions

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The United States has extended the closure of its 19 diplomatic missions in the Middle East and Africa through August 10 citing an “abundance of caution,” according to a statement from the US Department of State.

MOSCOW, August 5 (RIA Novosti) - The United States has extended the closure of its 19 diplomatic missions in the Middle East and Africa through August 10 citing an “abundance of caution,” according to a statement from the US Department of State.

“Given that a number of our embassies and consulates were going to be closed in accordance with local custom and practice for the bulk of the week for the Eid celebration at the end of Ramadan, and out of an abundance of caution, we've decided to extend the closure of several embassies and consulates including a small number of additional posts,” Jen Psaki, a spokesperson for the department, said in a statement on Sunday.

Last Thursday, the United States announced the closure of its diplomatic missions due to possible terrorism threats and on Friday issued a global travel warning of terrorist attacks “occurring in or emanating from the Arabian Peninsula.”

Psaki said that the extension of diplomatic missions’ closure was not “an indication of a new threat stream,” but “merely an indication of our commitment to exercise caution and take appropriate steps to protect our employees including local employees and visitors to our facilities.”

According to the statement, the embassies and consulates that will remain closed until the end of the week are located in Abu Dhabi, Amman, Cairo, Riyadh, Dhahran, Jeddah, Doha, Dubai, Kuwait, Manama, Muscat, Sanaa, Tripoli, Antananarivo, Bujumbura, Djibouti, Khartoum, Kigali, and Port Louis.

 

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