After Israel launched an attack on Iran, the United States has begun moving its military resources towards the Middle East, considering the possibility of a retaliatory attack by Iran. Here are more details.

The United States is shifting military resources in the Middle East in response to Israel’s strikes on Iran and a possible retaliatory attack by Tehran.

As of mid-2025, there are about 40,000 to 50,000 US troops in the Middle East, comprising personnel stationed in both large, permanent bases and smaller forward sites across the region.

Iran has told the United States and UK that it could retaliate if the countries aid Israel in attacks amid fears the Middle East will descend into war.

Shapiro served as Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for the Middle East until January—charged with, among other things, considering scenarios in which tensions between Israel and Iran escalated into all-out war and preparing U.

The United States has pulled some diplomatic staff and military families out of the Middle East, citing unspecified regional security risks.

Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz claims China could hold the 'moral authority' to negotiate Middle East peace after Israel's strikes on Iran.

President Donald Trump has repeatedly demanded the Federal Reserve slash interest rates. But Fed officials have stood pat, waiting to see how his administration’s sweeping policy changes affect the economy first.

Hezbollah, which went on to fight repeated wars with the main U.S. regional ally Israel, has said other groups were responsible. Iran had complaints too. Iraq invaded Iran in 1980 and started using chemical weapons against Iranian soldiers and border villages from 1982 but Washington lent diplomatic backing in the war to Baghdad.

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has reported that the United States has redirected 20,000 missiles, originally intended for Ukraine to combat Russian Shahed drones, to the Middle East. Source: Zelenskyy in an interview with ABC News;