US Embassy in Islamabad extends visa services suspension until March 20
Police stand guard outside the US consulate in Karachi. Photo: file
The US Embassy in Islamabad has extended the suspension of its visa services until March 20, cancelling all scheduled visa appointments while continuing to provide “routine and emergency services” to US citizens.
"All immigrant and nonimmigrant visa appointments are cancelled through March 20. Affected visa applicants will receive instructions by email on rescheduling their appointments," it said in a post on X.
The U.S. Embassy in Islamabad continues to serve U.S. citizens requiring routine and emergency services.
All immigrant and nonimmigrant visa appointments are cancelled through March 20. Affected visa applicants will receive instructions by email on rescheduling their… pic.twitter.com/ocKQQ1un04In addition, all consular services at the US Consulates General in Karachi and Lahore remain suspended.
This suspension comes as the US-Israel war on Iran nears its second week, with over 2000 people killed, mostly in Iran by US-Israeli joint strikes. Almost 700 have been killed by Israeli attacks in Lebanon, where Israel has targeted central Beirut and ordered residents out of a swathe of southern Lebanon.
The Israeli military on Friday warned it would strike two areas in the Iranian capital Tehran, Villa and Moniriyeh, and told residents to evacuate.
Read: Police, protesters clash in Karachi after Iran’s Khamenei killed in US-Israeli strike
"In the coming hours, the IDF will operate in these areas, as it has in recent days across Iran, to strike military infrastructure belonging to the Iranian regime. Dear citizens, for your safety and well-being, we ask that you immediately evacuate the marked area," the army posted on its Persian-language account on X, attaching maps of the affected neighbourhoods.
Earlier on Thursday, new Iranian Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei issued his first comments, read out by a television presenter, vowing to keep the Strait of Hormuz shut and calling on neighbouring countries to close US bases on their territory or risk Iran targeting them.
"I assure everyone that we will not neglect avenging the blood of your martyrs," he said. Iranian officials have said he was lightly wounded in initial strikes.
The leaders of Iran, Israel and the United States all voiced defiance and vowed to fight on as the Middle East war approached the two-week mark on Friday, killing thousands of people, disrupting the lives of millions of others and shaking financial markets.