BEIRUT, LEBANON (9:40 A.M.) – In an interview with Fox News on Saturday, Trump told the TV broadcaster that Saudi Arabia has responded to his request to pay the costs of any additional American forces in the region.
He said: “I told the Saudis that they are a very rich country, and they have to pay for the additional forces, and they have already paid a billion dollars to us.” He continued, “They are rich countries, and they have to pay for that.”
On October 11th, Washington decided to deploy 3,000 additional soldiers and military equipment, including Patriot missiles, the THAAD”system and combat aircraft in Saudi Arabia, against the backdrop of tension in the Gulf, after the missile attack on the Aramco.
Despite increasing the size of their forces in the Middle East, the U.S. has withdrawn a substantial amount of troops from Syria, which is where the American forces assisting the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) against the Islamic State (ISIS/ISIL/IS/Daesh).
