The United States has deployed additional Patriot air defence systems to Saudi Arabia and Qatar. The news came after US President Donald Trump said recently that he was considering whether to strike Iran again.
An extra Patriot battery has been sent to Saudi Arabia to protect an important oil facility, and another to Qatar to protect a natural gas facility, the US news outlet Axios reported on Thursday.
The deployments are significant because Patriot batteries are in high demand around the world and US supply is limited. According to the non-profit Missile Defense Advocacy Alliance, the US has only 33 Patriot batteries deployed at home and 27 abroad.
Gulf states including Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates have their own Patriot batteries, but they have borne the brunt of Iran’s retaliation for US and Israeli strikes and are relying on Washington for extra protection. Saudi Arabia is in a particularly difficult position, with its energy infrastructure and cities attacked by Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi rebels and Iraqi Shia militias.
The latest deployments follow Trump’s statement that he was considering new strikes on Iran. On Thursday he called a fresh escalation “possible”.
The aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt sailed from San Diego on Sunday, and the USS Makin Island Amphibious Ready Group, with three amphibious ships carrying about 10,000 marines, sailed the next day.
বাংলায় মূল প্রতিবেদন পড়ুন · Read the original Bengali report