President Donald Trump on Tuesday denied a report that his administration was considering sending up to 120,000 troops to the Middle East to respond to Iran — but added that if the United States were to go with such a plan, “we’d send a hell of a lot more.”
Trump told reporters outside the White House that a New York Times story Monday night claiming his administration was reviewing military plans against Iran was “fake news,” NBC News reports.
“Would I do that? Absolutely. But we have not planned for that,” Trump said. “And if we did that, we’d send a hell of a lot more troops than that.”
U.S. officials told NBC News that the plan to send up to 120,000 troops to the region was one of a range of options that Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan presented to Trump’s national security team during a recent meeting about Iran.The option involving as many as 120,000 troops represented a worst-case scenario contingency in the event that the U.S. and Iran were to go to war, the officials said.
Photo Credit: Andrew Harnik/AP
Source: NBC San Diego
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