* Deployment of thousands of US troops in Israel, a start of war against Iran?
As the Middle East roils in crisis when a US aircraft carrier entered a zone near the world’s most important choke point for oil shipments, the Strait of Hormuz, also an offshore region that Iran threatened to close if the United States raises sanctions against the Islamic Republic , the deployment of thousands of US troops in Israel has raised speculations of an imminent war.
On December 20, the Jerusalem Post newspaper reported Lt.-Gen. Frank Gorenc, commander of the US’s Third Air Force based in Germany, as saying that there will be a deployment of several thousand American soldiers in Israel.
An Egypt-based military expert, major general Jamal Mathloum, said that “there is a military strategic cooperation between the US and Israel since the 1980s and there is definitely mutual understanding,” adding that the US troops deployment might not necessarily mean a direct signal of war, but could be read as Israel and US readiness in case of a conflict arising in the region.
“There is already a US radar station in southern Israel, and might as well contain from 500 to 700 American soldier operating there,” Mathloum said. But for Abdulaziz Sager, chairman and founder of the Gulf Research Center in Dubai, the deployment of US troops in Israel is “definitely to send a clear signal to Iran.”
Sager said that there is a US-Israel defense agreement that makes defending the Jewish state an obligation to the United States. In addition to that, US President Barack Obama said in his last AIPAC meeting that the United States does not rule out any option against Iran if it had to.
According to debka.com, an Israeli website that provides political and security analysis, about 9,000 US soldiers have already arrived in Israel.
But Mathloum said this figure remains insignificant of compared to the more than 100,000 American soldiers dispersed in 1,000 US bases worldwide.
Lt.-Gen. Gorenc’s announcement came as he was visiting Israel to finalize plans for the upcoming drill, which is considered to be unprecedented in its size.
There will also be an establishment of US command posts in Israel and IDF command posts at EUCOM headquarters in Germany – with the ultimate goal of establishing joint task forces in the event of a large-scale conflict in the Middle East, the newspaper reported.
But according to Elia Henna, a Lebanon-based expert in military issues, the deployment of 9,000 US troops in Israel goes back to the US withdrawal from Iraq and to further the US presence in the region and not to leave the “Arab field” open to further Iranian influence.
Asked on why the United States did not increase its troops numbers in its military bases in the Arab Gulf, Henna said that both countries [Israel and United States.] Have far more compatible militaries and are bound with military agreements and that the United States has more freedom in Israel.
“Israel does not mind even if one million US soldiers to be deployed in the Jewish state,” he added. Despite US-Israel furthering their combative cooperation in light of the crisis looming around Iran, the Islamic Republic remains unyielding.
On Sunday, head of Iran’s Atomic Energy Organization Fereydoun, Abbasi Davani, reportedly said that Iran’s underground uranium enrichment facility will go on stream soon.
Davani said that the Fordow nuclear enrichment plant will be operational in the near future and that around 20 percent, 3.5 percent and four percent enriched uranium can be produced at the site.
“There is no third party to verify about the site [Fordow] and truth about the announcement,” said Sager, adding “they can say all they want to say but there is no confirmation or verification.”
Asked about the nature of the attack against Iran if there will be one, Sager said there will be a surgical and not a complete one since Iran cannot afford to, but it will be leaving the Gulf Arab or the surrounding region of Iran in dire environmental consequence.
Sanctions and internal domestic change can potentially bring about a change in Iran’s polices, he said.
The * Deployment of thousands of US troops in Israel, a start of war against Iran? by Dinar Daddy's Tidbits, unless otherwise expressly stated, is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.
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