Name: Pentagon denies report that US considering sending 10,000 troops to Middle East | BBC News
Uploaded: 2026-03-27T21:32:52.000Z
Duration: 6 min 26 s
Description: Thousands of YouTube videos with English-Chinese subtitles! Now you can learn to understand native speakers, expand your vocabulary, and improve your pronunciation...

The Pentagon has declined to comment on media reports as considering sending up to 10,000 additional troops to the Middle East.

It would mark a significant boost to U.S.

Modal verbs - B1

military presence in the region amid growing speculation that Washington may be preparing a ground operation in Iran.

Meanwhile, Iran Revolutionary Guards say the Strait of Hormuz is closed and anyone transiting through the area will face harsh measures.

These developments come as President Trump says he'll postpone plans to start destroying Iranian energy plants by another 10 days after claiming talks with Tehran were going very well.

His self-imposed deadline, which he has already delayed once, is now the 6th of April.

Iran hasn't publicly reacted to President Trump's decision,

but Tehran earlier said it was waiting for Washington to respond to its conditions for a ceasefire.

After the U.S. had sent Iran a 15-point U.S.

proposal to end the war, Iran outlined five of its own proposals and insists it has a natural and legal right to sovereignty over the Strait of Hormuz, a transit route responsible for a fifth of the world's oil.

Our international editor Jeremy Bowen had this analysis on the extra U.S.

They've got, um, two marine expeditionary units on their way, 2,200 marines on both, plus attack aircraft, helicopters.

I mean, they're quite small but quite formidable.

There are supposedly about 3,000 paratroopers from the 82nd Airborne on the way.

Their job is basically to go and hold something until the guys with the heavy equipment can emerge, can come.

and there's this report in the Wall Street Journal of 10, 000 more troops on their way.

I have to say, this doesn't mean that they're tooling up for an invasion of Iran.

When they invaded Iraq in 2003, I think the number was 160, 000,

and that is a country a quarter of the size of Iran.

But going for an island, maybe not Cargill Island, the oil export terminal, but

some of the other islands near the entrance to the Gulf Cargill Island is up near the top.

there's some islands around the entrance to the Gulf which may be a base for trying to control who goes in and who goes out.

But, you know, one thing that has been quite clear in all of this in the last month is that while the Americans appear to be, uh, making things up making things up as they go along sometimes, President Trump, because he does oscillate wildly in the things that he says, the Iranians appear to have a plan.

So they will know that the Americans are thinking about this because, look, we're talking about it.

so they will have a plan to try and make it as painful as possible for the Americans if they do that.

For example, launching drones that can be launched from, uh, hundreds and hundreds of kilometers away from those islands.

And they could make it difficult for the Americans, at the very least.

That was our international editor Jeremy Bowen speaking to my colleague Kasha Madeira there.

While the German foreign minister has said the U.S.

and Iran have had indirect talks, our security correspondent Frank Gardner gave his analysis, saying there is a major gap between what each country is willing to accept.

Let's stick to what we know for sure, which is that there are messages and proposals being passed both ways, from Washington to Tehran and back again.

But there is a major gap between what those what the two sides are prepared to accept.

So I find it very hard to believe that the, quote, "talks are going well" because the Iranian demands are unacceptable to the Americans and indeed here to the Gulf states.

And America's demands are unacceptable to Iran, which is feeling very defiant.

Look, there's a good reason why President Trump has paused for another 10 days his threat to attack the power plants, the energy, uh, plants of Iran, because Iran made it very clear that if that happened, it was going to hit back at power plants on this side of the Gulf.

And that would be catastrophic for the countries of this region.

You're talking about desalination plants, um, that provide the drinking water, hospitals, you know, schools, all the rest of it.

Now, they've already taken a lot of hits from Iran,

but this could be so much worse if those power plants were hit.

So there have been messages from the Gulf states to the U.S., "Please think really carefully before you do this because we are going to get hit in return." We are, of course, hearing U.S.

media reports that the U.S. is sending more troops to the region.

How prepared do you think both sides are to negotiate and try and resolve this conflict quickly?

That both sides are absolutely prepared to negotiate, but on their terms.

And I think there is a parallel here with the Russia-Ukraine war, where you had both sides saying, "Absolutely, we want to end the war, but

on our terms." And those terms, I think, are still far apart.

The there's been a miscalculation, without question.

If you talk to anybody who has a sober analysis of this war, they will tell you, including military people who don't want to be quoted, that, um, there was an overestimation by the White House and Central Command as to how quickly Iran was going to crumble.

Um, they thought that with this shock and awe of this overwhelming military superiority that the U.S.

and Israel undoubtedly have over Iran, that the regime would collapse or capitulate.

And every day that it survives, despite losing so many key people, despite losing so much weaponry, despite so many hits, it's still standing,

And if you talk to anybody, any military commander, they will say, "Look, it's not about how many sites you hit, how many missiles you destroy, how many commanders you assassinate.

It's about the net effect that you achieve." And Gulf Arab states and I'm speaking to you here from Qatar.

Gulf Arab states, they look at where we were a month ago.

Their ships carrying their oil and gas were able to pass freely through the Strait of Hormuz without being threatened by Iran.

There were no drones and missiles flying across the Gulf at them, and life was sweet.