Tag: middle east

US Sends Thousands More Troops to Middle East, Considers Ground Ops in Iran

The US is sending thousands of additional troops to the Middle East and is considering restarting the bombing campaign against Iran or launching ground operations in the country, The Washington Post reported on Wednesday, citing unnamed US officials.

The report said that the forces include 6,000 troops aboard the aircraft carrier USS George H. W. Bush and its accompanying warships. Notably, the Bush traveled around southern Africa on its way to the region instead of going through the Mediterranean and the Suez Canal, the typical route of US warships, signaling the US is concerned the Houthis in Yemen could close the Bab el-Mandeb Strait.

About 4,200 other US troops, including thousands of Marines, are heading to the region from the Pacific aboard the Boxer Amphibious Ready Group. The Post said they are expected to reach the Middle East by the end of April. Once both forces arrive, the US will have more than 60,000 troops in the region.

The buildup and the US blockade of Iranian ports are framed as an effort to get Iran to agree to US demands for a diplomatic deal. But according to President Trump, the US is continuing to demand that Iran make a commitment to never again enrich uranium for civilian purposes, a condition that’s seen as a non-starter and will likely lead to a renewal of the bombing campaign if the US sticks to it.

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Seven Messages – Can Israel Survive Defeat without Setting the Region Ablaze?

The moment a two-week ceasefire between the US and Iran was announced – brokered through Pakistani mediation on April 7 – Iran declared that Lebanon was included in the arrangement. It was a clear message: the war could not be compartmentalized, and the fronts were linked.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu rushed to deny it. But the denial exposed more than it concealed. Lebanon and other resistance fronts were already embedded within Iran’s broader ten-point proposal – a framework the Trump administration had accepted as a workable basis for negotiations set to begin Friday.

Netanyahu was left politically and strategically exposed.

Iran was never just another battlefield. It was the culmination of a long campaign of perpetual war that Netanyahu has sustained for years – beginning with the genocide in Gaza, expanding into Lebanon, and stretching across multiple fronts whenever his political survival demanded escalation.

Each war served a purpose: to silence dissent within his coalition, to distract from collapsing approval ratings, to evade accountability in corruption trials. War became governance.

But the Iran gambit failed. And failure, for Netanyahu, is never an endpoint. It is a trigger. With no victory to claim and no strategic gains to present, he turned – once again – to Lebanon.

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Iran has prevailed, and the Middle East has changed

US President Donald Trump has, in the end, found a way out of the situation he created by embarking on a reckless war against Iran. The threat of destroying an entire civilization provided him with the pretext to step back.

Indirect negotiations between Tehran and Washington, conducted through intermediaries, primarily Pakistan and, behind it, China, have produced a ceasefire. Trump may claim that Iran was cowed by his threats, but the reality is different.

A ceasefire under conditions where the Strait of Hormuz remains under Iranian control suggests that Tehran has not backed down. Washington, in effect, has.

It is too early to speak of any “golden age” emerging from these talks. But the outlines of the conflict’s outcome are already visible.

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Middle East is ‘on fire’ – Kremlin

The US-Israeli war against Iran has set the Middle East “on fire,” reflecting Russia’s warning about the dangerous consequences of the move, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov has said.

On Sunday, US President Donald Trump escalated the tensions by issuing an expletive-laden demand to Tehran to unblock the Strait of Hormuz, which has remained effectively shut since the conflict began on February 28.
“Open the f**king strait, you crazy bastards, or you’ll be living in hell,” he wrote on social media, threatening to demolish the Iranian power plants and bridges if it doesn’t happen by Tuesday. Tehran maintains that the key waterway is only closed for oil shipments by the US and its allies.

When asked by journalists about Trump’s rant on Monday, Peskov said that “we have seen those statements, but we prefer not to comment on them.”

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The Strange Case Of Trump’s ‘Board of Peace’

On January 22, 2026, at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Donald Trump signed the Charter of the Board of Peace before a room of world leaders, cameras, and a step-and-repeat backdrop plastered floor to ceiling with a repeating pattern that should have stopped every journalist in the room cold.¹

It was not the Board of Peace’s own logo. The BoP has its own emblem — a gold shield containing a globe centered on the Western Hemisphere, flanked by laurel branches, displayed prominently at the top of the stage. But the surface behind the signing table, the one that would fill every wire service photograph transmitted around the world, displayed the Great Seal of the United States: the eagle with spread wings, shield on breast, olive branch and arrows in its talons, stars above. Unmistakable. Incontestable.

The problem is that the Board of Peace charter explicitly states that Trump’s chairmanship “is independent of his presidency of the United States.”² The entire legal justification for bypassing Congress rests on the Board being a private international body — not a U.S. government instrument.

Under 18 U.S.C. § 713(a), displaying the Great Seal in connection with any public meeting in a manner reasonably calculated to convey a false impression of U.S. government sponsorship is a federal criminal offense.³ The Board cannot simultaneously claim independence from the U.S. government and wrap itself in that government’s sovereign seal. That is not a technicality. That is the architecture of deception.

Article 13.3 of the charter states that the Board “will have an official seal, which shall be approved by the Chairman.”⁴ If Trump approved the Great Seal of the United States as the Board of Peace’s official backdrop at its founding ceremony, that fact alone warrants a full accounting.

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US Mideast Allies including Saudi Arabia, UAE, and Others, Urge President Trump to Continue War on Iran

US Gulf allies, including Saudi Arabia, UAE and other Gulf allies urge President Trump to continue war on Iran,

The US allies privately warned President Trump that Tehran has not been weakened enough.

The US Allies say four weeks of bombings has not been enough to destroy the barbaric Iranian regime.

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Iran puts US students in crosshairs with campus threat as new US missile strike on school sparks fury

Iran has threatened to target American campuses in the Middle East in retaliation for US-Israeli strikes on its schools. 

The Islamic Revolutionary Guard set a deadline for noon on Monday for the Trump administration to ‘condemn the bombing of the universities’ or else it would retaliate against US students studying abroad in the Middle East.  

Regime officials warned that employees, professors, and students affiliated with US schools in the region should stay at least one kilometer from their campuses.

Iran claims strikes hit the Tehran University of Science and Technology over the weekend, damaging nearby buildings but not resulting in any casualties.

‘If the US government wants its universities in the region to be free from retaliation… it must condemn the bombing of the universities in an official statement by 12 noon on Monday, March 30, Tehran time,’ the regime told Iranian media. 

Multiple American universities operate campuses abroad, where thousands of students often study with financial support from host governments.

New York University has a campus in Abu Dhabi, in the United Arab Emirates, while Georgetown, Carnegie Mellon, Northwestern and Texas A&M each have satellite campuses in Qatar’s Education City, a research hub based in Doha.

Texas A&M said it closed its Qatar campus, moving to remote learning and with most international staff returning home amid the war.

Around 5,000 Americans studied in the Middle East and North Africa in the last academic year, with around half in Israel and roughly 1,000 in the UAE, according to the State Department.

Since the start of the war, deadly missile strikes have hit Iranian education facilities, including an elementary school attack on February 28 in the city of Minab that killed 175 people, most of them children.

The attack sparked a US military investigation whose preliminary findings concluded that American forces were likely responsible due to outdated intelligence. The building was once part of a regime naval base.

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2,000 Marines Arrive in Arabian Sea on USS Tripoli Assault Ship as Trump Admin Weighs Deploying Up to 10,000 More Ground Troops to Middle East 

Thousands of Marines and Sailors have arrived in the Arabian Sea on board the USS Tripoli amphibious assault ship, carrying fighter jets, as well as amphibious assault and tactical assets.

CENTCOM announced on X,

U.S. Sailors and Marines aboard USS Tripoli (LHA 7) arrived in the U.S. Central Command area of responsibility, March 27. The America-class amphibious assault ship serves as the flagship for the Tripoli Amphibious Ready Group / 31st Marine Expeditionary Unit composed of about 3,500 Sailors and Marines in addition to transport and strike fighter aircraft, as well as amphibious assault and tactical assets.

U.S. Sailors and Marines aboard USS Tripoli (LHA 7) arrived in the U.S. Central Command area of responsibility, March 27. The America-class amphibious assault ship serves as the flagship for the Tripoli Amphibious Ready Group / 31st Marine Expeditionary Unit composed of about… pic.twitter.com/JFWiPBbkd2

— U.S. Central Command (@CENTCOM) March 28, 2026

Fox reports that “nearly 2,000 Marines” are on the ship with fighter jets and gun ship helicopters. Additionally, the USS George H.W. Bush Aircraft Carrier is expected to depart from Norfolk, Virginia, next week.

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IDF Vet-Turned War Critic Explains Why Israel’s Military is on the Brink of Collapse

Israel has been fighting a multi-front war since 2023, with the backbone of its forces “based on its reserve battalions, on people that are civilians and that are called by the army to serve,” former IDF officer Guy Poran told Sputnik, commenting on a top general’s warning that the IDF risks “collapsing in on itself” from operational strain.

“Under normal circumstances, they serve 30 days or 45 days a year. Now, because of the war in Gaza” and other conflicts Israel has found itself in, “many of those reserve battalions, the fighting units of the IDF, have been called up for hundreds of days,” Poran, an ex-IAF helicopter pilot-turned peace activist, explained.

Many soldiers have businesses that are falling apart, problems with family life, etc.

Compounding the crisis are the exemptions to service that the Netanyahu government has given to members of the Ultra-Orthodox community. This has created “a big conflict” in Israeli society, according to Poran.

“And this during the time that the army has clearly said that it requires something like 15,000 more soldiers just to be able to do the missions that it has” in Gaza, Lebanon (for which a whopping five divisions have been mobilized), the West Bank, etc.

On top of that, there is the growing realization in society that these conflicts are “political,” and not existential, in nature, Poran says.

In contrast to the wars of 1967 and 1973, which most saw “as wars that were absolutely necessary,” the wars since 2023, initially met with enthusiasm, now face skepticism – from the sense that the “destruction of Gaza” was not carried out for security reasons, from the government’s rejections of a ceasefire to bring hostages home, etc.

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Pentagon Mulling Diverting Weapons From Ukraine to Mideast Amid Depleting Stocks – Reports

The US Department of War (DoW) is mulling diverting weapons destined for Ukraine to the Middle East as the ongoing conflict with Iran is rapidly depleting critical ammunition reserves, The Washington Post reported on Thursday citing three sources.

The decision has yet to be made, the report said, but if confirmed, it could mean the transfer of air defense interceptor missiles ordered by NATO countries under the Prioritized Ukraine Requirements List (PURL) initiative.

“[DoW will] ensure that US forces and those of our allies and partners have what they need to fight and win,” the department said as, cited by the report, adding that other comments on the matter were not provided.

Europeans are also growing concerned about the rate of ammunition depletion of the US military amid the ongoing operations against Iran, the report said, citing European diplomats. One of the individuals said the situation raises questions as to the extent Washington will be able to continue delivering under the PURL initiative.

Moreover, although ammunition deliveries to Ukraine are likely to continue, future shipments might lack defense capabilities, the report said citing people familiar with the Pentagon’s internal calculations.

Earlier in March, CBS News reported that Washington is failing to replenish the air defense stocks of its allies in the Persian Gulf in a timely manner amid its bombardment campaign against Iran and the latter’s retaliatory strikes across the region. The report noted several Gulf nations are running “dangerously low” on interceptors and request that the US expedite the deliveries. However, while the US informed the allies it is establishing a task force on the matter, it is not happening fast enough.

US Under Secretary of War for Acquisition and Sustainment Michael Duffey later assured Washington has a sufficient amount of air defense ammunition stocks amid the ongoing conflict in the Middle East.

On February 28, the United States and Israel launched strikes on targets in Iran, including in Tehran, causing damage and civilian casualties. Iran responded by striking Israeli territory and US military facilities in the Middle East.

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