The Trump administration will keep its military buildup in the Middle East in place despite signing a new agreement with Iran, underscoring Washington's continued distrust of Iran as the two sides enter a 60-day negotiating period."The plan is to keep the current force posture during the 60-day negotiations," a senior U.S.official told reporters on a call Monday.
"We hope to draw them down, but we're not doing that yet.""The agreement contemplates the reduction of military forces in the region upon the agreement of a final deal," the official added.Officials said President Donald Trump, Vice President JD Vance and Iranian Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf already have signed the memorandum, and that the details of the agreement will be released publicly within the next 24 to 48 hours.A formal signing ceremony is expected later in the week. The Trump administration will keep its military buildup in the Middle East in place despite signing a new agreement with Iran, underscoring Washington's continued distrust of Tehran as the two sides enter a 60-day negotiating period.
(Mandel Ngan/AFP)BUILT FOR WEEKS OF WAR: INSIDE THE FIREPOWER THE US HAS POSITIONED IN THE MIDDLE EASTThe decision means the Pentagon will maintain a military posture that recently included roughly 50,000 troops deployed across the Middle East, one of the largest U.S.force concentrations in the region in more than two decades.
Publicly available fleet tracking data indicate at least two carrier strike groups remain in the U.S.Central Command area of responsibility.Officials repeatedly stressed that any sanctions relief, asset releases or future concessions would be tied to verification and Iranian performance, not promises alone, with one senior official acknowledging the two sides remain in the early stages of "building trust."That lack of trust was evident in the administration's description of the agreement, which differs in key respects from accounts published by Iranian officials a...