Foreign Office updates 'do not travel list' concerning 21 countries
The UK Foreign Office has updated its 'do not travel list' following the US and Israel launching military strikes across Iran.
By now, you're probably aware that Donald Trump's decision to join forces with Israel's Benjamin Netanyahu and launch a wide-scale military attack across Iran has pretty much destabilised the entire Middle East.
Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was killed in an airstrike at his compound in Tehran, while the Red Crescent reports that at least 550 more people have been killed across the country.
Iran has responded by firing missiles at Israel and US military bases across the region, causing disruption in Qatar, Kuwait, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia and everyone's favourite tourist hotspot, Dubai.
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Video footage has shown debris from intercepted drones landing on residential buildings, hotels and international airports while the region's airspace remains closed.
What is the latest Foreign Office advice for travel to the Middle East?
Yesterday (1 March), the FCDO updated its travel guidelines to reflect the unfolding conflict, with British nationals in the six countries urged to register their presence in order to receive direct updates and guidance.
These countries are:
- Bahrain
- Israel
- Kuwait
- United Arab Emirates
- Qatar
- Palestine
Travel advice has been updated for several countries, with guidance currently warning against all travel and/or all but essential travel to the above six countries as well as: Iran, Iraq, Oman, Jordan, Pakistan, Lebanon, Jordan, Syria, Egypt, Afghanistan, Yemen, Turkmenistan, Armenia and Azerbaijan.
Meanwhile, Saudi Arabia and Turkey have issued warnings against all but essential travel to certain regions.
Around 300,000 British nationals are currently believed to be in the Middle East at the moment, either as tourists or expats.
What is the guidance for British nationals in this region?
The overwhelming majority of British nationals in the Middle East are currently in Dubai, the capital of the United Arab Emirates.
Current guidance for those in Dubai and the wider UAE is to shelter in place - which means remaining indoors, avoiding travel and following local instructions - as well as registering their presence.
According to the BBC, Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper said there are an estimated 300,000 British citizens in Gulf countries, with a total of 102,000 having since registered their presence with the UK government.
Further guidance on what to do should the situation escalate is listed on the FCDO's 'If you're affected by a crisis abroad' page.
Are airports in the Middle East currently open?
As of 2 March, airports have been closed in Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Israel, Bahrain and Qatar, while air travel has been strictly limited in the UAE.
FlightRadar reports that airports in Abu Dhabi and Dubai temporarily opened for a small number of departures earlier today. There are also restrictions on commercial flights in some regions of Saudi Arabia and Jordan.
Meanwhile, the BBC is reporting that the UK Government is currently exploring 'potential scenarios' for evacuation should the conflict continue, and a Downing Street spokesperson said they 'are looking at all options', including using commercial, charter, military flights, and buses to get Britons across the Saudi and Turkish borders (via The Guardian).
Cooper told Sky News that the government is 'working on every possible option' and teams have been deployed to Gulf countries to assist British citizens there.
"Of course, we want people to get safely home as swiftly as possible," she said.
The history of Iran's conflict with the US: a timeline
As the United States and Israel launch military operations against Iran, which are focused on the regime's nuclear facilities, military infrastructure and leadership, here is a look into the history of the Middle Eastern nation's conflict with the US.
1953: The US backs the ousting of PM Mohammad Mosaddegh
In a covert operation called Operation Ajax, the British and American intelligence services joined forces to overthrow Iran’s nationalist prime minister, Mohammad Mosaddegh, in August 1953, with the aim of retaining access to cheap oil and preventing communist expansion.
This would go on to fuel the decades-long anti-American movement in Iran.
1957-1968: Nuclear energy agreements
This agreement was a part of US President Dwight D. Eisenhower’s 'Atoms for Peace' program, and just over a decade later, in 1968, the US and Iran were among the initial signatories of the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, which entered into force in 1970.
1970-80s: Civil unrest grows in Iran
While relations between the US and Iran appeared to be stable in the 1970s, civil unrest in the Middle Eastern nation was beginning to mount, resulting in the Islamic Revolution in 1979.
Around this time, the Shah was permitted entry into the US for cancer treatment, triggering outrage among a group of Iranian university students who believed he had escaped justice.
They stormed the American embassy in Tehran in November in retaliation, taking 52 Americans hostage and demanding the Shah be returned to Iran to face trial.
1980: Diplomatic ties with Iran are cut by the US
Following an unsuccessful rescue mission to retrieve the American embassy hostages in April 1980, which left eight US servicemen dead, US President Jimmy Carter cut diplomatic ties with the nation. Formal relations between the two have never been restored.
That same year, neighbouring country Iraq invaded Iran, sparking a war that would go on for eight years and kill hundreds of thousands of people on both sides.
The US backed Iraq during this conflict, providing money, training and technology.
It took 444 days to release the US embassy hostages, who were returned home in January 1981, minutes after Carter’s term ended and President Ronald Reagan was sworn into office.
Late 1980s: Tensions continue between the US and Iran
In 1984, the US added Iran to its list of state sponsors of terrorism and imposed sanctions on the country.
However, two years later, in 1986, the Reagan administration secretly sold weapons to Iran to secure the release of Americans held hostage in Lebanon by the militant group Hezbollah.
And then, in 1988, US naval cruiser the USS Vincennes mistakenly shot down an Iranian passenger jet over the Strait of Hormuz, killing all 290 people on board.
1990s: President Bill Clinton’s administration tightens sanctions
These 1995 sanctions included an oil embargo and a ban on US trade. Clinton then signed into law the Iran and Libya Sanctions Act in 1996, which penalised non-American companies that invested over $20 million annually in Iran’s oil and gas sector.
2000s: President George Bush's comments on Iran spark fury
During his State of the Union speech in 2002, President Bush described Iran, as well as North Korea and Iraq, as being part of an 'axis of evil'.
This sparked nationwide outrage in Iran due to its assistance of the US in its war against the Taliban in Afghanistan in the wake of the September 11 terror attacks.
2010s: President Barack Obama holds top-level contact with Iran for the first time in 30 years
In September 2013, Obama spoke by phone to Iranian President Hassan Rouhani to 'offer a new chapter of engagement on the basis of mutual interests and mutual respect'.
Two months later, Iran, Germany, and the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council - China, France, Russia, the UK and the US - signed an initial nuclear deal, known as the Joint Plan of Action, designed to manage crises and to ensure that Iran's nuclear programme will be exclusively peaceful.
2018: President Donald Trump restores sanctions on Iran
In 2015, the 2013 nuclear pact was expanded to the landmark Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), in which Iran pledged to limit its uranium stockpile.
However, during Trump's first term of presidency in 2018, he fulfilled a campaign pledge by withdrawing the US from the JCPOA, which he called the 'worst deal ever'.
He restored the sanctions on Iran that had been lifted under the nuclear pact, and pursued a 'maximum pressure' strategy designed to drive the country’s oil exports to zero.
Then, in 2019, the US designated the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, Iran’s most powerful military institution, a terrorist organisation.
2020s: President Joe Biden's administration arranges prisoner exchanges and sanctions waivers
When Joe Biden took office in 2021, his administration began indirect talks with Iran, but with little success.
But in 2023, a prisoner exchange deal was agreed to release five detainees. This also included a sanctions waiver for banks to transfer $6 billion of frozen Iranian funds from South Korea to Qatar for humanitarian purposes - something Republican lawmakers were highly critical of.
2025: President Donald Trump's second term brings back his 'maximum pressure' campaign
Back in office for his second term, Trump reinstated his 'maximum pressure' campaign to order tougher enforcement of existing sanctions on Iran.
In early 2025, the US joined Israel's offensive and struck three Iranian nuclear facilities, resulting in a retaliation attack from Iran, which bombed the Al Udeid Air Base, a US military facility in Qatar.
2026: US military action is launched in Iran and Ali Hosseini Khamenei is assassinated
In late 2025, Iran was engulfed in anti-government demonstrations following the collapse of its currency. Protests demanded the end of Ali Hosseini Khamenei's rule, which resulted in authorities issuing crackdowns and restricting internet and telecommunications access.
The US-based Human Rights Activist News Agency said in a February report that more than 6,000 civilians had been killed, and more than 50,000 people arrested.
Khamenei died on February 28, aged 86, in a large-scale air attack on Iran by the US and Israel.
Topics: World News, UK News
Brenna Cooper