The State Department is "actively" implementing plans to bring home Americans who were stranded in the Middle East after the U.S. and Israel attacked Iran, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Tuesday.
According to Rubio, 9,000 Americans had been able to leave the region Tuesday, and 1,500 were requesting help to depart. Citizens had been urged by the department to leave 14 countries.
A State Department spokesman said on X that more than 17,500 U.S. citizens had returned from the Middle East since Feb. 28.
"We have identified and continued to identify charter flights, military flight options and expanded commercial flight options, meaning working with the airlines to send bigger airplanes with more seats," Rubio said in remarks to the press. Other options, he said, could be land routes that would enable travelers to get to neighboring countries with available flights.
Other countries were also working to repatriate travelers who were stuck, not those in the Middle East but also those whose flights were canceled or diverted because of airspace closures.
Rubio said continuing airspace closures were making repatriation flights a challenge.
"We've had a couple instances in which we have planes in the air and on the way, and unfortunately the airspace gets closed and they have to turn back around," he said.
He returned to the airspace challenges in response to a question about whether an evacuation plan was in place prior to the attack. "So the airport in Kuwait was hit. If an airport's been attacked or the airspace is closed, then we can have the planes lined up ready to go but we can't get them to land because we don't have the permission to land there."
He again urged Americans to register with the Smart Traveler Enrollment Program, or STEP, and to call for consular assistance; the numbers were posted on the State Department's website. "As options begin to open up, we have to be able to call you; we have to be able to reach you."
Several posts and responses on X criticized the evacuation efforts, with some posting that callers initially got a recorded message saying that they "should not rely on the U.S. government for assisted departure or evacuation at this time;" that message was later updated, according to a post by Jonathan Karl, the chief correspondent for ABC News.
A State Department spokesperson said Wednesday that the outdated voice message, ran by a third party, had been fixed.
Both numbers appeared to be working on March 4.
Brinley Hineman and Johanna Jainchill contributed to this report.
This report was updated with new data and updates from the State Department.