Page 2 - ARUBA TODAY

A2 UP FRONT
Wednesday 15 May 2019
Global worries flare over whether U.S. sliding toward Iran war

Continued from Front the alert level for all service ment said. troops to the Mideast was not spelled out that threat.
members in Iraq and Syria. At the White House, Trump, only a “rumor.” Lavrov said The U.S. has about 5,000
“No, there’s been no in- troops in Iraq and about
creased threat from Irani- 2,000 in Syria as part of the
an-backed forces in Iraq coalition campaign to de-
and Syria,” said Maj. Gen. feat the Islamic State group
Chris Ghika, a senior officer there. It also has long had
in the U.S.-backed coalition a variety of air and naval
fighting the Islamic State forces stationed in Bahrain,
group. Ghika, speaking in Qatar and elsewhere in the
a video conference from Gulf, partly to support mili-
coalition headquarters in tary operations against IS
Baghdad, told reporters and partly as a counter to
at the Pentagon that the Iranian influence.
coalition monitors the pres- Gen. Ghika’s comments
ence of Iranian-backed came amid dramatically
forces “along with a whole heightened tensions in the
range of others because Middle East. The U.S. in re-
that’s the environment cent days has ordered the
we’re in.” USS Abraham Lincoln air-
But he added, “There are a craft carrier strike group
substantial number of mili- to the Gulf region, plus
tia groups in Iraq and Syria, four B-52 bombers. It also
and we don’t see any in- is moving a Patriot air-de-
creased threat from any of fense missile battery to an
them at this stage.” Russian President Vladimir Putin, second right, speaks to U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, undisclosed country in the
Late in the day, in a rare second left, during their talks in the Black Sea resort city of Sochi, southern Russia, Tuesday, May area. As of Tuesday, the
public rebuttal of an allied 14, 2019. U.S. Ambassador to Russia Jon Huntsman is on the left, Sergei Naryshkin, head of the Lincoln and its strike group
Russian Foreign Intelligence Service is fourth on the right, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov,
military officer, U.S. Central is third on the right and Kremlin foreign policy aide Yuri Ushakov is on the right. had passed through the
Command said Ghika’s re- Associated Press Bab-el-Mandeb Strait in the
marks “run counter to the Red Sea, but officials would
identified credible threats” “As a result, (the coalition) is who has repeatedly ar- the international communi- not disclose their exact lo-
from Iranian-backed forces now at a high level of alert gued for avoiding long- ty needs to focus on diplo- cation.
in the Mideast. In a written as we continue to closely term conflicts in the Mid- macy with Iran, including Tensions rose another notch
statement, Central Com- monitor credible and possi- east, discounted a New on the potentially explosive with reports Sunday that
mand said the coalition in bly imminent threats to U.S. York Times report that the issue of Iran’s nuclear pro- four commercial vessels
Baghdad has increased forces in Iraq,” the state- U.S. has updated plans that gram, which is constrained anchored off the United
could send up to 120,000 by a U.S.-brokered deal in Arab Emirates had been
troops to counter Iran if it 2015 that Trump has aban- damaged by sabotage.
attacked American forces. doned. A U.S. military team was
“Would I do that? Abso- U.S. Iran envoy Brian Hook sent to the UAE to investi-
lutely,” he told reporters. told reporters traveling with gate, and one U.S. official
“But we have not planned Pompeo in Brussels that the said the initial assessment is
for that. Hopefully we’re secretary of state shared in- that each ship has a 5- to
not going to have to plan telligence on Iran with allies 10-foot hole in it, near or
for that. If we did that, we’d since “Europe shares our just below the water line.
send a hell of a lot more concerns about stability The official, who was not
troops than that.” in the Gulf and the Middle authorized to publicly dis-
Reinforcing Trump’s deni- East.” What the Europeans cuss details of the investi-
al, Secretary of State Mike do not share, however, is gation, said the early inter-
Pompeo said at a joint Washington’s more aggres- pretation is that the holes
news conference in Sochi sive approach to Iran. were caused by explosive
with Russian Foreign Min- “We are very worried about charges. The official on
ister Sergei Lavrov, “We the risk of a conflict hap- Tuesday acknowledged
fundamentally do not seek pening by accident, with seeing some photographs
war with Iran.” an escalation that is unin- of the damage to the ships,
A Trump administration of- tended really on either side but those images have not
ficial said a recent small but ends with some kind been made public. The
meeting of national securi- of conflict,” British Foreign official also said that the
ty officials was not focused Secretary Jeremy Hunt told team is continuing to con-
on a military response to reporters in Brussels. duct forensic testing on the
Iran, but instead concen- “What we need is a pe- ship damage and that U.S.
trated on a range of other riod of calm to make sure leaders are still awaiting
policy options, including that everyone understands the final report. The team’s
diplomacy and economic what the other side is think- initial assessment is that
sanctions. The official spoke ing,” Hunt said. the damage was done by
on condition of anonymity Last week, U.S. officials said Iranian or Iranian-backed
to discuss internal delibera- they had detected signs of proxies, but they are still go-
tions. Iranian preparations for po- ing through the evidence
Lavrov said Pompeo told tential attacks on U.S. forc- and have not yet reached
him that a potential de- es and interests in the Mid- a final conclusion, the offi-
ployment of 120,000 U.S. east, but Washington has cial said.q