The recent surge in US service members in the Middle East suggested the Iran war could become a protracted, low-intensity conflict as Donald Trump eyes his trip to China in May, Chinese military analysts said.
On Sunday, The New York Times and The Washington Post reported that several hundred US Army Rangers and Navy Seals had arrived in the Middle East, joining roughly 3,500 marines and sailors who were deployed earlier and bringing the number of American troops in the region to over 50,000 troops, a 10,000 increase since the conflict began.
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The deployment gives Trump additional military options to secure the Strait of Hormuz, effectively closed by Iran, or seize Kharg Island, Iran’s oil hub in the northern Persian Gulf, or extract nearly 1,000 pounds (453kg) of highly enriched uranium from the country, according to the reports.
Li Cheng, founding director of the University of Hong Kong’s Centre on Contemporary China and the World, called a full-scale US troop invasion of Iran “unlikely”.
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