Washington: At a meeting of US President Donald Trumps top national security aides last week, Acting Defence Secretary Patrick Shanahan presented an updated military plan that envisions sending as many as 120,000 troops to the Middle East should Iran attack American forces or accelerate work on nuclear weapons, administration officials said.
The high-level review of the Pentagon’s plans was presented during a meeting on May 9 about broader Iran policys, The New York Times quoted the officials on Monday. It was held days after what the Trump administration described, without evidence, as new intelligence indicating that Iran was mobilising proxy groups in Iraq and Syria to attack American force.
As a precaution, the Pentagon has moved an aircraft carrier, B-52 bombers, a Patriot missile interceptor battery and more naval firepower to the Gulf region. The revisions were ordered by hard-liners led by John Bolton, Trump’s National Security Adviser. They however, did not call for a land invasion of Iran, which would require vastly more troops.
It remains uncertain whether Trump, who has sought to disentangle the US from Afghanistan and Syria, ultimately would send American forces back to the Middle East. It is also unclear whether the President has been briefed on the number of troops or other details in the plans.
