The US administration is beginning to send personnel back to several diplomatic missions in the Middle East that had been evacuated or downsized due to tensions with Iran.

Sources speaking to Reuters stated that posts in Lebanon, Israel, Saudi Arabia, and Baghdad in Iraq are among the locations where staff will return.

They added that family members will also be permitted to return to US missions in Riyadh.

The move indicates that Washington views the near-term risk of escalation in the conflict with Iran as lower.

However, some embassies will initially operate below full capacity.

Sources stated that certain embassies will initially operate without exceeding 85% of their authorised staffing levels.

One source said the return of some personnel is expected to begin this week.

Following the start of joint US-Israeli strikes against Iran on 28 February, the US had withdrawn personnel from its embassies across the Middle East.

Some embassies in Gulf Arab states, including Saudi Arabia and Kuwait, were targeted by Iranian retaliatory actions, leading to the temporary closure of those embassies.

Since then, although the US naval blockade on Iranian ports remains in place, the Strait of Hormuz—vital for oil and commodities shipping—remains closed, and diplomatic efforts to end the war have stalled, intense fighting has diminished.

A US State Department spokesperson stated in an emailed response to Reuters that the department continuously reviews the security posture of its diplomatic missions worldwide.

“Based on our latest assessment, we are adjusting our staffing posture at select posts in the Middle East to enable us to continue advancing US foreign policy objectives while maintaining the safety and security of our personnel,” the spokesperson said.

The New York Times previously reported, citing an internal document, that diplomats were returning and emergency measures were being eased, noting that embassies in Jordan, Oman, Kuwait, and Qatar were also expected to restore staffing levels.

The newspaper added that US embassies in Israel, Jordan, and Oman will ultimately return to full staffing levels, while missions in the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and Lebanon will initially be capped at 85% of their personnel levels.

Missions in Iraq, Kuwait, and Bahrain will have their staffing levels capped at 75%.

US President Donald Trump has sent a draft civil nuclear energy agreement with Saudi Arabia to Congress.

However, a White House official speaking to Reuters emphasised that the pact would take effect only if the kingdom normalises relations with Israel.

The agreement, reached in July to allow US companies to export civil nuclear technology to Saudi Arabia, was sent to Congress on Monday, according to the US official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

It remains unclear how Trump expects submitting the nuclear deal to Congress to advance his objectives.

Congress has 90 continuous session days to review the agreement.

“The president’s position has not changed that the agreement will only move forward if Saudi Arabia joins the Abraham Accords,” the US official said in an emailed statement.

Signed in 2020 and 2021, those accords were concluded between Israel and the UAE, Bahrain, Morocco, and Sudan.

A few days after agreeing to the Saudi nuclear pact in July, Trump, who had worked on a similar deal during his first presidential term, set the normalisation of ties as a condition for the agreement to enter into force.

Former president Joe Biden had also pushed for a nuclear deal and sought to link it to the accords in question.

Diplomats believed Riyadh was close to normalising relations with Israel in 2023, but the war Israel launched against Gaza in October 2023 altered the situation.

Saudi Arabia demands an “irreversible pathway” to a Palestinian state before recognising Israel.

The 30-year nuclear pact provides for the construction of AP1000 reactors, a project worth tens of billions of dollars that would benefit Westinghouse, co-owned by Canada-based Cameco and Brookfield Asset Management.

According to two congressional sources, the agreement was sent to congressional leaders and is expected to be presented to committees on Wednesday.

If Congress does not object to the agreement within 90 session days, it will take effect.

Should Congress reject the agreement, Trump could veto that decision, which would require a two-thirds majority in Congress to override.

Some Democratic members of Congress and non-proliferation advocates have criticised the nuclear agreement for failing to bar Saudi Arabia from enriching uranium or reprocessing spent nuclear fuel.

Those two activities represent two potential pathways to producing nuclear weapons. The UAE, by contrast, accepted such measures, known as the “gold standard”, in its 2009 civil nuclear agreement with Washington.

The Trump administration maintains that the agreement contains the non-proliferation measures required by law.

Henry Sokolski, head of the Nonproliferation Policy Education Center, said Trump’s move in initiating the process created the possibility that Congress might allow the deal to proceed without conditions on normalisation and non-proliferation.

“If you are serious about barring enrichment and recognising Israel, this situation is hardly ideal,” Sokolski said.

An official from the US-backed “Board of Peace” has said that “all military activities” in Gaza, including flying kites, must stop.

Speaking to various news outlets, an official from the Board of Peace said: “All militant activities in Gaza, including kite flying, must cease. We have conveyed this message directly through the existing mechanism.”

Noting that Israel must also abide by the ceasefire agreement, the official added that military action “cannot extend beyond responding to real and imminent threats.”

The statement came after Israel approached the “Board of Peace” regarding the matter.

Officials told the Times of Israel (ToI) newspaper that in a recent meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, senior US representatives and board members stated that Israel’s interpretation of “imminent threats” in Gaza was too “vague” and risked delaying progress on Washington’s peace plan, which envisages the disarmament of Hamas and an Israeli withdrawal.

In addition, parents in Gaza were warned to prevent their children from flying kites in the war-ravaged territory.

Popular committees comprising representatives of local non-governmental organisations and aid charities operating camps and shelters for displaced persons in the Hamas-controlled area of the Gaza Strip issued the warning in a statement late yesterday.

According to an internal source within the organisation, the announcement was made in coordination with Hamas officials.

The statement said:

“We are working tirelessly on the ground and doing everything we can to stop this practice; we are doing this not to restrict the childhood of our children, who have already been deprived of their most basic rights to play and live safely, but to protect innocent lives.”

A total of 12 kites and four balloons were reported to have crossed from Gaza into Israeli border areas this month.

So far, no suspicious objects have been found on any of the kites flown from Gaza in recent days.

However, many people associated these objects with the kites and balloons carrying certain devices that were flown for years by groups in Gaza prior to the Hamas-led attack of 7 October 2023.

In the Operation Al-Aqsa Flood, paragliding Palestinians had crossed the border.

A senior Israeli defence official claimed that Hamas was attempting to provoke Israel by encouraging Gaza residents to fly kites across the border.

A Hamas official told Reuters, however, that the group complained to ceasefire mediators that “Israel is inventing false pretexts to continue the war against Gaza.”