DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Three weeks into an escalating war in the Middle East, Iran threatened Friday to expand its retaliatory attacks to include recreational and tourist sites worldwide, as the U.S. announced it was sending more warshipsand Marinesto the region.
Hours later, President Donald Trump said on social media that his administration in fact was considering “winding down” military operations in the region. His post came after anotherclimb in oilplunged the U.S. stock market.
The mixed messages came as the war has shown no signs of abating.
Iran launched more attacks on Israel andenergy sites in neighboring Gulf Arab states, and the region marked one of the holiest days on the Muslim calendar. Iranians were also celebrating the Persian New Year, known as Nowruz, a normallyfestive holiday, as Israeli airstrikes landed in Tehran.
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, which began Feb. 28 — or even whowas truly in charge of the country. But Iran’s attacks are still choking off oil supplies andraising food and fuel pricesfar beyond the Middle East.
Meanwhile U.S. officials announced that the Trump administration will lift sanctions on Iranian oil stranded at sea under a one-month license as the White House tries to bring down soaring oil prices. The pause applies to Iranian oil loaded on ships as of Friday and is set to end April 19.
The U.S. and Israel have offered shifting rationales for the war, fromhoping to foment an uprisingthat topples Iran’s leadership to eliminating itsnuclear and missile programs. There have been no public signs of any such uprising and no end to the war in sight.
In his social media post, the president said, “We are getting very close to meeting our objectives as we consider winding down our great Military efforts in the Middle East.”
That seemed at odds with his administration’s move to bolster its firepower in the region and request another $200 billion from Congress to fund the war.
The U.S. is deploying three more amphibious assault ships and roughly 2,500 additional Marines to the Middle East, an official told The Associated Press. Two other U.S. officials confirmed that ships were deploying, without saying where they were headed. All three spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive military operations.
Source: Drudge Report
