US Sending 1000 Additional Troops to Middle East Following ‘Hostile Behavior’ from Iran

Acting Secretary of Defense Patrick Shanahan announced that the US will be sending 1,000 additional service members to the Middle East to counter what he called “hostile behavior by Iranian forces and their proxy groups that threaten United States personnel and interests across the region.”

As reported in the New York Times, this latest deployment comes on the heels of an Iranian announcement on Monday that it would resume part of its nuclear enrichment program and three days after two attacks on commercial tankers in the region, which the US claims were perpetrated by Iranian forces. In May 2018, President Donald Trump unilaterally pulled the US out of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action deal struck between Iran, the Obama administration, and several European nations. The US subsequently violated the agreement by re-emplacing sanctions on Iran even though it had frozen its nuclear enrichment program and, up until recently, international inspectors had verified that Iran was abiding by the terms of the agreement.

The latest batch of US troops being sent to the Middle East follows 1,500 others that were sent to the region just last month. According to the Times, the additional forces “will be used primarily for additional surveillance of Iranian activities and further protecting American forces already in the Middle East.”

On Sunday, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo claimed on Fox News Sunday that there was “no doubt” Iran was responsible for two recent mine attacks on tankers traveling through the Strait of Hormuz. A day later, the State Department released more color photos that it asserted were further proof of Iran’s involvement in the attacks.

File photo of Iranian Navy boat on patrol in Persian Gulf on April 30, 2019, via Atta Kenare/AFP/Getty Images.