Deployment at odds with Trump's statement that U.S. is considering 'winding down' operations
Jon Gambrell, Sam Mednick, David Rising · The Associated Press ·
Posted: Mar 20, 2026 1:43 AM PDT
U.S. President Donald Trump said on Friday that the United States is considering "winding down" its Middle East military operation, a statement that seemed at odds with his administration's move to send more troops and warships to the region and request another $200 billion US from Congress to fund the war.
Trump made the comment in a post on social media on Friday after another climb in oil prices sent the U.S. stock market sharply lower.
The president also said the U.S. is "getting very close to meeting our objectives," though he has made similar remarks in the past weeks of war.
Earlier Friday, Iran threatened recreational and tourist sites worldwide, insisting it was still building missiles. Its supreme leader also issued another defiant statement.
Iran fired on Israel and energy sites in neighbouring Gulf Arab states as many in the region marked one of the holiest days on the Muslim calendar. Iranians were also celebrating the Persian New Year, known as Nowruz, a normally festive holiday that is more subdued this year.
Tehran intensifies attacks on Gulf energy facilities after Israel hits Iranian gas field
With little information coming out of Iran, it was not clear how much damage its arms, nuclear or energy facilities have sustained in the punishing U.S. and Israeli strikes that began Feb. 28 — or even who was truly in charge of the country. But Iran's attacks are still choking off oil supplies and denting the global economy, raising food and fuel prices far beyond the Middle East.
The U.S. and Israel have offered shifting rationales for the war, from hoping to foment an uprising that topples Iran's leadership to eliminating its nuclear and missile programs. There have been no public signs of any such uprising and no end in sight to the war.
Democrats and some Republicans are alarmed by the Trump administration's pursuit of another $200 billion for the war against Iran, with some saying it signals a dangerous escalation of the conflict and highlights a lack of coherent strategy.
U.S. and Israeli leaders have said that weeks of strikes have decimated Iran's military. Airstrikes have also killed its supreme leader, the head of its Supreme National Security Council and a raft of other top-ranking military and political leaders.
The U.S. is deploying three more warships and roughly 2,500 additional marines to the Middle East, an official told The Associated Press. The official said the USS Boxer and two other amphibious assault ships have deployed, and two other U.S. officials confirmed that ships were deploying, without saying where they were headed.
All three officials spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive military operations.
A White House official said Trump has said he has "no plans" to send troops into Iran but that he retains all options. The official wasn't authorized to speak to the media and spoke on condition of anonymity.
Trump has said the campaign has been going according to plan, but he has vented his fury at U.S. allies for declining to help open the Strait of Hormuz while fighting continued, albeit in a conflict they were neither consulted on nor advised of.
Canada, Germany, Britain, France, Italy and the Netherlands, as well as NATO non-member Japan, pledged in a joint statement on Thursday to join "appropriate efforts to ensure safe passage through the Strait."
In his post on Friday, the president left a muddled picture of whether the U.S. would police the vital shipping lane.
The British government authorized the U.S. to use military bases in Britain to hit Iranian missile sites threatening shipping. But German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, who said he would speak to Trump this weekend, and French President Emmanuel Macron have both said any active intervention would require an end to the fighting.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday claimed Iran's navy was sunk and its air force in tatters, while asserting that its ability to produce ballistic missiles had been taken out. Iran's paramilitary Revolutionary Guard disputed the missile claim on Friday.
Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei praised Iranians' steadfastness in the face of war in a written statement read on Iranian television to mark the Persian New Year.
He said the U.S. and Israeli attacks were based on an illusion that killing Iran's top leaders could cause the overthrow of the government. He commended Iranians for "building a nationwide defensive front" and "delivering such a bewildering blow that the enemy fell into contradictions and irrational statements."
Khamenei has not been seen in public since he became supreme leader following the assassination of his father, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, in Israeli strikes at the start of the war. U.S. and Israeli officials suspect the younger Khamenei was wounded.
Iran launched several missile attacks toward Israel on Friday, sending residents into shelters as fighting between U.S.-Israeli forces and Iran showed no sign of ending.
Iran threatens to target parks, tourist destinations
Iran's top military spokesperson, Gen. Abolfazl Shekarchi, warned on Friday that "parks, recreational areas and tourist destinations" worldwide won't be safe for Tehran's enemies. The threat renewed concerns that Iran may revert to using militant attacks beyond the Middle East as a pressure tactic.
Gen. Ali Mohammad Naeini, a spokesperson for Iran's Revolutionary Guard, was quoted by a state-run newspaper on Friday saying Iran continues to manufacture missiles despite Israel's claim that it had destroyed Iran's production capabilities.
Qatar warns gas facility repair could take 5 years as concerns grow over knock-on effects of war
Qatar says an Iranian strike on Ras Laffan, the world's largest liquified natural gas plant, has taken out 17 per cent of its export capacity. Persian Gulf states are also major producers of fertilizer, and concerns are mounting over what may happen to global food prices should that supply chain be disrupted.
Iranian state television later said that Naeini was killed in an airstrike.
Gen. Alexus Grynkewich, the top commander of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, confirmed on Friday that the alliance has pulled several hundred personnel out of Iraq and relocated them to Europe. They were part of NATO's security advisory mission established in 2018 to advise Iraqi defence and security officials.
The move came after a string of Iranian attacks on other troops at British, French and Italian bases in the country.
Iran has stepped up its attacks on energy sites in Gulf Arab states after Israel bombed Iran's massive South Pars offshore natural gas field earlier in the week.
Two waves of Iranian drones attacked a Kuwaiti oil refinery early Friday, sparking a fire. The Mina Al-Ahmadi refinery, which can process some 730,000 barrels of oil per day, is one of the largest in the Middle East.
Bahrain said a fire broke out after shrapnel from an intercepted projectile landed on a warehouse, and Saudi Arabia reported shooting down multiple drones targeting its oil-rich Eastern Province.
Iran's attacks on energy infrastructure in the Gulf — combined with its stranglehold on shipping in the Strait of Hormuz, a strategic waterway through which a fifth of the world's oil and other critical goods are transported — has raised concerns of a global energy crisis.
Brent crude oil, the international standard, has soared during the fighting and was about $108 US per barrel on Friday, up from roughly $70 US per barrel before the war began.
Heavy explosions shook Dubai as air defences intercepted incoming fire over the city, where many were observing Eid al-Fitr, the end of the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan.
In Iran, meanwhile, many were marking Nowruz as Israel said it had launched new strikes, and explosions were heard over Tehran.
Loud explosions could also be heard in Jerusalem after the Israeli army warned of incoming Iranian missiles. The Israeli military said missile fragments struck the edge of Jerusalem's Old City, home to sites sacred to Jews, Christians and Muslims.
As of Thursday, the U.S.-based Iran human rights group HRANA said at least 1,394 people, including 210 children, have been killed. It said 1,153 millitary members were killed and 639 people who have not been classified as civilian or military have also died.
Meanwhile, Israeli strikes targeting Iran-backed Hezbollah militants in Lebanon have displaced more than a million people, according to the Lebanese government, which says more than 1,000 people have been killed. In Israel, 15 people have been killed by Iranian missiles. Four people were also killed in the Israeli-occupied West Bank by an Iranian missile strike. At least 13 U.S. military members have been killed.
On Friday, Israel broadened its attacks to Syria, saying it hit infrastructure there in response to what it described as attacks on the Druze minority. Syria's Foreign Affairs Ministry said Israel had acted under "flimsy pretexts and fabricated excuses."
No comments:
Post a Comment