U.S. President Donald Trump claimed on March 19 that he had told Israel not to repeat its attacks on Iranian natural gas infrastructure. “I told him, ‘Don’t do that,’ and he won’t do that,” he told reporters in the Oval Office, where he met Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi. A U.S. official and three other people familiar with the planning told Reuters that Trump was considering sending thousands more U.S. troops to the Middle East. But at his meeting with Takaichi, Trump said he had no plans to deploy ground forces. “I’m not putting troops anywhere,” he said.
Nonetheless three U.S. Navy assault ships, led by the USS Tripoli, are racing across the Indian Ocean toward Iran carrying 2,200 Marines, equipped with F-35B stealth fighters, Osprey tilt rotor aircraft, and helicopters. Speculation is rife that Trump might use them to try to reopen the Strait of Hormuz or to seize Kharg Island, home of Iran’s largest oil export terminal. Both are fools’ errands. Kharg Island is at the northern end of the Persian Gulf, roughly 750-800 km sailing distance from the Strait. How the Marines would even get there has not been explained.
