General Kenneth F. McKenzie Jr., the top U.S. general in the Middle East, visited Saudi Arabia Sunday and said the country is still asking for American military assistance to deter Iran, even as the possibility looms that the U.S. could reduce the number of troops in the region to pivot toward threats in Asia.
The Biden administration is currently conducting a review of the U.S. military’s assignments around the world amid the “near peer” threats posed by Russia and China.
McKenzie did not speculate on what the review’s potential outcome might be, but acknowledged that it is creating concerns in Saudi Arabia.
“I think they want reassurance that they’re going to be helped if they’re attacked by Iran, and they want help against the continuing attacks,” McKenzie, the head of U.S. Central Command, told ABC News and Associated Press reporters traveling with him this week to the Middle East.
McKenzie said Sunday that that while the American military troop presence in the region has deterred Iranian aggression against Saudi Arabia, he believes that what is “far more important is sort of the broad spectrum of capabilities that we give them.”
