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The US State Department on Sunday ordered its nonessential diplomats and all embassy dependents to leave Kuwait, Israel, and Syria immediately as a result of the threat of a possible war with Iraq.
"The decision to move to ordered departure status is a result of an overall assessment of the security situation in the region due to the threat of military action in Iraq," State Department spokesman Lou Fintor said.
But he said the State Department does not have threat information specific to these areas.
The latest order by the State Department came several hours after US President George W. Bush announced on Sunday that Monday would be the last day to determine whether international diplomacy could work for a peaceful solution to the Iraqi crisis.
"Tomorrow will be a moment of truth for the world" over the Iraq issue, and would be the last day to determine whether international diplomacy could work, Bush told reporters at a press conference at the end of his meeting with British and Spanish counterparts in Azores, Portugal.
President Bush, together with British Prime Minister Tony Blair and Spanish Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar, stressed once again their demand for Iraq's immediate and unconditional disarmament.
"The Iraqi regime will disarm itself or the Iraqi regime will be disarmed by force -- and the regime has not disarmed itself," he said at the press conference.
(Xinhua News Agency March 17, 2003)
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