The US Embassy in Baghdad yesterday issued a security warning calling on all American citizens in Iraq to leave the country immediately. The reason - escalating threats from pro-Iranian militias operating in the region.

Specifically, the embassy advises: „avoid places frequented by foreigners, Western hotels and any facility that could be a target of attack." It also recommends not visiting the embassy itself in Baghdad or the consulate in Erbil - the scenario of rocket, drone and mortar attacks is real and active. In recent months there have been attacks on the International Zone in Baghdad as well as on facilities near the Erbil airport.

This is the important point. When a country's embassy advises its own citizens not to come to the embassy itself, that is an admission that the diplomatic mission cannot guarantee safety in the host country's capital. Under normal circumstances, embassies are considered the safest points for a country's own citizens abroad. That no longer applies to Baghdad.

The context is broader. US-Iranian tensions have escalated on multiple fronts in recent months - in Syria (after Assad's fall), in Yemen (with the Houthis), in Lebanon (with Hezbollah after the war in Gaza), and in Iraq (with Hashd al-Shaabi, the pro-Iranian Shia militias embedded inside the Iraqi army). Iraq is a paradoxical country - formally an ally of the US, yet part of its military apparatus sits under pro-Iranian control.

Why do Informer and similar Serbian propaganda outlets (or their Russian equivalents) frame this as „Iran has defeated the US"? That is rhetoric, not reality. Withdrawing American civilians is not a military defeat - it is a diplomatic precaution. But what is real and shouldn't be ignored is that the US has been steadily reducing its commitments in the Middle East for years. It pulled out of Afghanistan in 2021. From Syria - gradually. Now even Iraq is becoming a „problematic partner".

For the Balkans the meaning is strategic. If Washington draws down in the Middle East, it has more resources and attention for Eastern Europe. That is good news for Poland and the Baltics, but also for the Balkans, where US military-diplomatic engagement is higher than a decade ago (KFOR in Kosovo, bases in Romania and Bulgaria, joint exercises with Balkan armies). The story is not „America is leaving everything" - it is „America is restructuring". The Balkans is a candidate for more attention, not less.