These are the forces that the United States has deployed in the Middle East

Less than four years after the historic agreement between Iran and the five members of the United Nations Security Council (United Kingdom, China, France, Russia and the United States), relations between Washington and Tehran Trump took power in January 2017. In March this year, President of the Islamic Republic Hasan Rohaní confirmed that his country "was in an economic and psychological war with the United States and its allies. ". Two months later, USA increases its forces near the Iranian borders, jeopardizing the stability of the Middle East, an already unstable region.

Forces deployed in the last days

The USS Abraham Lincoln

On May 5, US National Security Advisor John Bolton announced that Washington was deploying USS Abraham Lincoln Tactical Aircraft Group and a group of bomber operations in the region overseen by Central Command (CENTCOM, by its acronym in English) "to send a clear and unequivocal message" to Iran that "any attack on the interests of the United States or their allies will face a relentless force".

"The deployment […] it represents a cautious repositioning of badets in response to indications of a credible threat from Iranian regime forces, "US Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan said the following day on his Twitter account.

The USS Abraham Lincoln was launched in 1988 and represents a displacement of 88,000 tons. The aircraft carrier, powered by two nuclear reactors, can carry 90 aircraft.

Bombers B-52

On May 7, Washington announced that four heavy strategic B-52 bombers capable of carrying nuclear weapons would be deployed in the Middle East. Two of them arrived Friday at Al Udeid Air Base near Doha, Qatar.

Patriot System and USS Arlington

On the same day, Shanahan approved the deployment in the Middle East of a US Patriot air defense system battery and the USS Arlington amphibious transport vessel.

The Patriot system, in production since 1976 and which gained popularity during the Gulf War, can intercept both airplanes and ballistic missiles and has an effective range of 70 kilometers.

The USS Arlington, launched in 2010 and part of the San Antonio clbad, has a displacement of 25,300 tons and can carry, in addition to dozens of combat vehicles, 699 marines.

The 22nd Expeditionary Unit of the Navy and the USS Kearsage

In addition, on Thursday, the amphibious badault ship USS Kearsage crossed the Strait of Hormuz with on board the 22nd Expeditionary Navy unit and is now in the Oman Sea. Although, according to the Marine Times newspaper, citing fleet officials, his move was scheduled, the ship, capable of carrying up to 1,871 landing troops, objectively increases the US military presence near the Iranian shores.

US military presence in the region

The Pentagon has staff and has several facilities in countries close to Iran.

The two countries with the largest number of US military personnel are Afghanistan and Iraq, invaded by the United States. in the years 2001 and 2003, respectively. Although the exact number of staff members concentrated there is not revealed, there are thousands of soldiers.

Thus, as reported by the New York Times in February (this information was confirmed by a foreign policy source), Afghanistan had about 14,000 US troops, in addition to more than 8,000 allies and NATO .

As for the Iraqi territory, the number of American soldiers is estimated at about 5,200 people.

In addition, despite the announcement made by the White House at the end of last year of the withdrawal of its Syrian forces, it remains in the country, according to the plans of the Pentagon made public last March, about 1 000 soldiers.

The other neighboring countries of Iran, where Washington has bases and military personnel, are Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Israel, Jordan, Kuwait, Oman and the United States. Turkey. In total, they are home to nearly 10,000 US troops, according to the data center staff of the Ministry of Defense.

Causes of deterioration

The tension between the two countries is due to the Tehran nuclear program, initiated under the regime of Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, American partner, and taken over by the authorities of the Islamic Republic after the 1979 revolution.

Since the 1990s, the development of Persian atomic technologies, despite the badertions of its leaders that it is not a question of creating nuclear weapons, has resulted in sanctions on the part of the United States, as well as from other countries and international organizations. .

Finally, in July 2015, in Vienna (Austria), Iran and Mediate Sexteto, formed from Germany, China, the United States, France, Russia and the United Kingdom, signed the global and comprehensive action (JCPOA, for its acronym in English). Under this treaty, Iran disposed of 98% of the enriched uranium that it had and maintained its level of enrichment below 5%, which is normally required for operating nuclear power plants for civilian purposes. In turn, the EU has agreed to lift all its non-proliferation sanctions, eight years after the date of adoption or when the IAEA has reached the general conclusion that all nuclear weapons in Iran were used for peaceful purposes. Under the same conditions, USA has decided to abolish the sanctions on the acquisition of products related to nuclear energy and services related to nuclear activities addressed in the action plan. The badtet has promised that the EU, the UN and the US will not re-impose the sanctions that have been lifted nor the new sanctions related to nuclear energy. If not, Iran will consider it a sufficient basis to stop fully or partially honoring its commitments.

However, since early 2017, when the new US president took power, began to denounce Tehran for its ballistic missile tests and has repeatedly failed to qualify this agreement as a "disaster" and "worst deal ever negotiated". .

In October of the same year, Trump announced that it would not certify the nuclear deal and would not impose new sanctions on Tehran, after noting that "Iran" will always remain the main sponsor of terrorism ". The Trump movement was backed by two rivals from Tehran: Israel and Saudi Arabia.

Although several countries have tried to persuade the president not to withdraw from the historic treaty, May 8, 2018, the United States abandoned the nuclear agreement with Iran. Trump blamed the treaty for not protecting Washington and its allies from the "madness" of an Iranian nuclear bomb. In addition, he said he has "definitive evidence" and "conclusive evidence" from Israeli intelligence that Iran is actively seeking a nuclear weapon.

They were followed by sanctions that resulted in the disconnection of the Persian Central Bank from the SWIFT system. On April 22, the US government announced its intention to reimpose sanctions on all countries that buy Iranian crude at the end of the current period, May 2.

RT.