War fears mount as US deploys bombers and carrier strike group to counter Iran ‘threat’
- Trump administration accelerates deployment of an aircraft carrier strike group and other military resources to the Middle East
- British general takes issue with Washington’s alarms over an imminent danger posed by Tehran to the US and its allies
International worries that the Trump administration was sliding toward war with Iran have flared into the open amid scepticism about its claims that the Islamic Republic poses a growing threat to the US and its allies in the Persian Gulf and beyond.
The US military rebutted doubts expressed by a British general about such a threat.
US President Donald Trump denied a report that the administration has updated plans to send more than 100,000 troops to counter Iran if necessary. But Trump then stirred the controversy further by saying: “Would I do that? Absolutely”.
The British general’s remarks exposed international scepticism over the American military build-up in the Middle East, a legacy of the 2003 invasion of Iraq that was predicated on false intelligence.
US officials have to date not provided any evidence to back up claims of an increased Iranian threat even as an ally general took the extraordinary step of publicly challenging the Trump administration.
“No, there’s been no increased threat from Iranian-backed forces in Iraq and Syria,” said Major General Chris Ghika, a senior officer in the US-backed coalition fighting Islamic State.
Ghika, speaking in a video conference from coalition headquarters in Baghdad, told reporters at the Pentagon that the coalition monitors the presence of Iranian-backed forces “along with a whole range of others because that’s the environment we’re in”.