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The State Department volition permanently adjacent the U.S. consulate successful Peshawar, Pakistan, which has been America's closest diplomatic ngo to the Afghan borderline and was a superior operations and logistics constituent before, during and aft the 2001 penetration of Afghanistan.
The section notified Congress this week of its intent to adjacent the consulate and said it would prevention $7.5 cardinal per year, portion not adversely affecting its quality to beforehand U.S. nationalist interests successful Pakistan, according to a transcript of the notification obtained by The Associated Press on Wednesday (March 11, 2026).
The determination has been nether information for much than a twelvemonth since the Trump medication began downsizing astir each national agencies and is not related to the Iran war, which has sparked protests successful assorted Pakistani cities, including Karachi and Peshawar, wherever the U.S. consulates temporarily suspended operations.
The administration's cuts to the State Department past twelvemonth included the dismissal of respective 1000 diplomatic unit and the adjacent wholesale firing of staffers with the U.S. Agency for International Development, which it wholly dismantled.
The Peshawar consulate, however, is the archetypal overseas diplomatic ngo to beryllium closed down wholly due to the fact that of the State Department's reorganisation.
The Peshawar consulate employs 18 American diplomats and different authorities unit and 89 section staff, according to the notice, which is dated Tuesday (March 10) and said the section would walk $3 cardinal to adjacent it down. More than fractional of that amount, $1.8 million, would wage for the relocation of armoured trailers that had served arsenic impermanent bureau space, it said.
The remainder volition spell toward moving the consulate's centrifugal excavation fleet, physics and telecommunications instrumentality and bureau furnishings to the U.S. Embassy successful Islamabad and the remaining consulates successful Karachi and Lahore, the announcement said.
Because of its proximity to the Afghan borderline and Kabul, the Peshawar consulate had been a cardinal jumping-off installation for overland question into Afghanistan arsenic good arsenic a constituent of interaction for American citizens successful northwestern Pakistan and Afghan nationals seeking U.S. assistance.
The notification said consular services for American citizens and others would beryllium handled by the embassy successful Islamabad, which is astir 114 miles (184 kilometres) away.
“The closure would not adversely impact the mission's quality to beforehand halfway U.S. nationalist interests, assistance U.S. citizens, oregon to behaviour capable oversight of overseas assistance programs due to the fact that each of those functions would proceed to beryllium performed by U.S. Embassy Islamabad," it said.
