The Peshawar consulate employs 18 American diplomats and different authorities personnel and 89 native employees, in accordance with the discover, which is dated Tuesday (March 10) and stated the division would spend $3 million to shut it down.
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The State Division will completely shut the U.S. consulate in Peshawar, Pakistan, which has been America’s closest diplomatic mission to the Afghan border and was a major operations and logistics level earlier than, throughout and after the 2001 invasion of Afghanistan.
The division notified Congress this week of its intent to shut the consulate and stated it could save $7.5 million per yr, whereas not adversely affecting its means to advance U.S. nationwide pursuits in Pakistan, in accordance with a duplicate of the notification obtained by The Related Press on Wednesday (March 11, 2026).
The transfer has been into consideration for greater than a yr because the Trump administration started downsizing practically all federal businesses and isn’t associated to the Iran conflict, which has sparked protests in numerous Pakistani cities, together with Karachi and Peshawar, the place the U.S. consulates quickly suspended operations.
The administration’s cuts to the State Division final yr included the dismissal of a number of thousand diplomatic personnel and the close to wholesale firing of staffers with the U.S. Company for Worldwide Growth, which it totally dismantled.
The Peshawar consulate, nonetheless, is the primary abroad diplomatic mission to be closed down totally due to the State Division’s reorganisation.
The Peshawar consulate employs 18 American diplomats and different authorities personnel and 89 native employees, in accordance with the discover, which is dated Tuesday (March 10) and stated the division would spend $3 million to shut it down. Greater than half of that quantity, $1.8 million, would pay for the relocation of armoured trailers that had served as short-term workplace area, it stated.
The remainder will go towards transferring the consulate’s motor pool fleet, digital and telecommunications gear and workplace furnishings to the U.S. Embassy in Islamabad and the remaining consulates in Karachi and Lahore, the discover stated.
Due to its proximity to the Afghan border and Kabul, the Peshawar consulate had been a key jumping-off facility for overland journey into Afghanistan in addition to a degree of contact for Americans in northwestern Pakistan and Afghan nationals searching for U.S. help.
The notification stated consular providers for Americans and others can be dealt with by the embassy in Islamabad, which is about 114 miles (184 kilometres) away.
“The closure wouldn’t adversely have an effect on the mission’s means to advance core U.S. nationwide pursuits, help U.S. residents, or to conduct ample oversight of overseas help applications as a result of all of these capabilities would proceed to be carried out by U.S. Embassy Islamabad,” it stated.
Revealed – March 12, 2026 07:22 am IST