Trump approves modest increase of about 1,500 troops in the Middle East

President Donald Trump said Friday he would deploy about 1,500 additional US troops to the Middle East, “a relatively small number,” to provide protection for US service members already there.

>> Helene CooperThe New York Times
Published : 24 May 2019, 08:22 PM
Updated : 24 May 2019, 08:22 PM

“We want to have protection,” Trump said to reporters as he left the White House to travel to Japan for a state visit. “We’ll see what happens.”

Shortly after Trump spoke on the White House lawn, the acting defence secretary, Patrick Shanahan, described the deployments as “prudent defensive measure and intended to reduce the possibility of future hostilities.”

In a statement, Shanahan said the deployments will consist of a Patriot missile-defence battalion; additional intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance aircraft; an engineer element to improve protection measures for military personnel; and a fighter aircraft squadron.

The president reached his decision after a Thursday meeting at the White House with top national security aides, concluding that a small increase would be sufficient to address any additional security threats in the region from Iran or its proxy forces.

During a Pentagon briefing Friday, Defense Department officials for the first time publicly accused Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps for attacks on tankers in the Gulf of Oman. Rear Adm. Michael Gilday, the director of the Defense Department’s Joint Staff, said US intelligence has attributed the attacks to Iran. But he disclosed no supporting evidence.

The small number of troops — compared with at least 20,000 that have been under consideration — may alleviate some of the concerns from Capitol Hill. Skeptical lawmakers, most of them Democrats, this week challenged administration officials about whether the latest tensions with Iran have been caused by Tehran or Washington.

And Trump himself has been in favour of shrinking the US military presence in the region, especially in Syria.

Before Thursday’s meeting at the White House, officials said, the Pentagon planned to present an option for deploying up to 20,000 troops to the region. But some Defense Department officials viewed such a move as running counter to protecting US troops already there, as it could give US adversaries in the region even more of a target.

The Defense Department notified Congress of the new deployment Friday.

© 2019 New York Times News Service