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.

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.

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.

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.

U.S. embassies and military bases across the Middle East are on high alert, as fears grow about an Israeli strike 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.

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

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.