Trump Says Iran Offers ‘Present’ As More Troops Head to the Middle East

The US is preparing to deploy more troops to the Middle East as the war with Iran drags on. The Pentagon plans to send around 3,000 soldiers from the Army’s elite 82nd Airborne Division to support operations against Iran, the Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday. The decision to put boots on the ground in Iran hasn’t been made final yet, the officials said. Either way, the move would be a significant shift in the conflict, which has largely been an air campaign.

As more US troops head to the Middle East, President Donald Trump has increasingly looked for an off ramp for the war. Trump signaled that Iran had offered a “present” as a show of good faith in negotiations, and while he wouldn’t detail the gift, he confirmed it was related to energy flows through the Strait of Hormuz. Overall, there remained broad uncertainty about who the US is negotiating with, the structure of talks, and the outlines of any potential agreement, and Iran and Israel showed no signs of letting up in the conflict.