Who Pays the Cost of the Security Warnings?

Throughout the Gaza war and then the Iran war, the American embassy in Jordan kept issuing warnings to its citizens, and at times American embassies in other Arab countries issued similar warnings to their citizens because of the war and expected escalatory operations.

These warnings extended to cover diplomats’ movements under difficult conditions, leading to a reduction in their movement during certain periods, and also included warnings about possible disruptions to airport and flight operations, meaning Americans could potentially be stranded in the Arab region because of the state of turmoil. If we were to count the warnings regarding Jordan and the rest of the region’s countries since October 2023, we would find them numerous and varied in tone.

The Israelis increased these same kinds of warnings, the latest being a warning to Israelis in several Arab countries out of fear of possible military escalation in the region, something Tel Aviv is considered to be the primary cause of.

The cost of these warnings to Arab countries, including Jordan, is significant, because anyone who reads the warnings will not come to Jordan for tourism, study, or medical treatment. It is not only Americans who will avoid Jordan; the effect of the warnings will spread to Europeans and Asians as well, who will be influenced by these warnings and will prefer to avoid Jordan, or the rest of the region’s countries, because everyone assumes that if Washington did not have confirmed information about a war that could expand at any moment, it would not have issued warnings in a manner that leaves such a serious impact on Arab countries.

If Washington asked itself about the cost of these warnings on the region, it would not issue them this way, because it is effectively saying that the people of these countries are awaiting a bloody fate, while the American must be pulled out first, even though Washington understands, through the State Department sections specialized in our region, that the peoples of this region go about their lives as usual, unafraid of war or a passing missile, having been born in a region overflowing with wars.

The bitterest and most damaging part of these warnings is the major harm they cause these countries, because the warnings make the world’s peoples avoid travel, tourism, and investment in the region. Why would anyone buy a piece of land in any country in the region if every couple of weeks brings a new warning? Why would anyone buy a house, or come for tourism to Jordan, Egypt, or any Arab country, as long as the region remains under the threat of war and flying missiles?

This means Washington’s mismanagement of the file of the war with Iran did not stop at military, security, and economic borders, or at the effect on trade and the flow of oil, gas, and goods; it also extended to tarnishing the region’s reputation, presenting it as an unsafe region, and drying up all its resources tied to investment, tourism, travel, and the movement of domestic economies in the countries Americans are warned to avoid staying in or visiting, along with other aspects affected by the frequency of these security warnings, especially since Washington has been dozing in the region for three years, unable to decisively end any war, whether through a decisive strike or a settlement deal, and instead dumps all the crisis’s bills on the peoples of the region.

On top of the cost of the war Washington causes for all its allies, these warnings come to make the picture even worse. The message here to Americans is this: an American life matters, as we know, but you must also remember the lives of the region’s people.

Warn your citizens through direct electronic communication, without public announcements, and do not drag the stability of the region’s countries down with you, because the region already has more than enough compulsive anxiety of its own.