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The United States will strengthen its military presence in the Middle East with "about 1,500 more troops" in the high-tension situation with Iran. The role of the troops will be "essentially protective," President Trump said Friday in the White House gardens before leaving for Japan. The Congress had been informed this morning of the reinforcement, which should take place in the coming weeks.
According to the Associated Press, the mission will focus on protecting the troops already deployed in the area and guaranteeing freedom of navigation. The decision was made, according to The Washington Post, at a meeting of the president with top Pentagon officials at the White House, Thursday afternoon.
"Our job is deterrence, it has nothing to do with the war," Acting Defense Minister Patrick Shanahan said before the meeting. "We have a mission in the Middle East: freedom of navigation, the fight against terrorism in Syria and Iraq, the defeat of Al Qaeda in Yemen and the security of Israel and Jordan."
The president, in his statements to the press before leaving for Japan, said that he did not think it was necessary to deploy more troops, although he warned that "as much than necessary "would be sent. "I do not think Iran wants to fight and less with us," he added.
The United States began strengthening its military presence in the Persian Gulf earlier this month by sending an aircraft carrier, bombers and Patriot missile batteries, in response to a threat from Iran, for which no details were provided detected its intelligence services. The pressure on the Islamic Republic has intensified since the United States emerged from the nuclear deal promoted by President Barack Obama. At the present time, Washington has tightened its sanctions and designated the Iranian Revolutionary Guard as a terrorist organization.
The high tension and suspicion of possible attacks against US interests in the region have led the state department to order the withdrawal of non-essential diplomatic personnel stationed in Iraq. Although it is not such a large deployment as envisaged in the case of an armed conflict, sending new troops to the area is a sign that Washington does not consider that the threat has been mitigated. According to CNN's defense experts, the decision was taken from the bottom up: it would obey a request from the military commanders deployed on the ground and not to a White House initiative.
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