Almost a month has passed since the September 14 attack on Saudi Arabia’s oil facilities, which members of both President Donald Trump’s administration and the Saudi government have blamed on Iran. And on Friday, according to Reuters, the Pentagon confirmed that the U.S. will be sending a large military deployment to Saudi Arabia to help Saudi forces.

In an official statement, Jonathan Hoffman, a spokesman for the Pentagon, said, “Taken together with other deployments, this constitutes an additional 3,000 forces that have been extended or authorized within the last month.”

ADVERTISEMENT

The Pentagon, according to Reuters, said the military aid for Saudi Arabia will range from air defense personnel to fighter squadrons. Following the September 14 attack, Trump’s administration has reiterated that it considers Saudi Arabia a valuable ally of the United States.

Ironically, earlier in the same week, Trump defended abandoning the United States’ Kurdish allies as they face an onslaught from Turkey:

I was elected on getting out of these ridiculous endless wars, where our great Military functions as a policing operation to the benefit of people who don’t even like the USA. The two most unhappy countries at this move are Russia & China, because they love seeing us bogged….. — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 7, 2019

Although bad blood exists between the Saudi government — including Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman — and the government of Iran, Iranian officials have denied that Iran played any role in the September 14 attack, which has worried the global energy market at a time when the U.S. economy appears to be softening and economists fear a possible recession.

ADVERTISEMENT

One thing that remains unclear, Reuters reported, is whether or not the aircraft carrier the USS Abraham Lincoln will be replaced after its deployment in the Middle East ends.