Despite the Iran-US ceasefire announced on 7 April, Washington continues to reposition forces across the region in preparation for potential future operations.
The reinforcements bring the total US military build-up to over 10,000 troops in and around the region © Mena Today
The United States is significantly expanding its military footprint in the Middle East.
More than 4,000 additional troops belonging to the amphibious group USS Boxer and the 11th Marine Expeditionary Unit are expected to deploy to the region in the coming weeks, according to the Washington Post.
They will join the approximately 6,000 personnel already aboard the aircraft carrier USS George H.W. Bush, which also carries dozens of combat aircraft, now operating in the Indian Ocean near the Middle East, as confirmed by the US military on Thursday.
The reinforcements bring the total US military build-up to over 10,000 troops in and around the region, painting a picture that stands in sharp contrast to the ceasefire between Iran and the United States announced on 7 April.
Throughout the truce, American forces have continued to reposition and resupply their naval and air assets without pause. "The military is ready to resume strikes if ordered to do so," a US official told the Washington Post on condition of anonymity, a blunt signal that Washington views the ceasefire as a tactical pause, not a strategic settlement.
With Israel simultaneously declaring its readiness to strike Iran pending US authorisation, and Donald Trump extending the Israel-Lebanon ceasefire by three weeks, the region remains on a razor's edge, diplomacy and firepower advancing in uneasy tandem.
An Iranian parliamentary committee is reviewing a preliminary bill that would bar U.S., Israeli and other "hostile" vessels from transiting the Strait of Hormuz, Iran's semi-official Fars news agency reported, citing a lawmaker.
With President Donald Trump’s war against Iran now in its sixth month, this week's flurry of threats and diplomacy has underscored the ever-tighter bind he finds himself in as he tries to extricate the U.S. from an unpopular conflict he originally claimed would last just weeks.
At least 30 Yemeni government troops were killed in Houthi attacks on military camps in the provinces of Marib and Hadramout, government sources said on Thursday.
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