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Navy Capt. Bill Urban, a spokesman at the U.S. militarys Central Command, said there were "possibly imminent threats to U.S. forces in Iraq." USA TODAY

The U.S. military put its forces in Iraq on highalert, andthe State Departmentordered all nonemergencyemployees Wednesday to leave the country immediately amid escalating tensions with Iran. SomeU.S. allies have expressedskepticism about the Trump administrations claims that Iran poses a growing threat.

Navy Capt.Bill Urban, a spokesman at the U.S. militarys Central Command, said in a statementthat there were "possibly imminent threats to U.S. forces in Iraq" as he sought to clarify contradictory remarks by a British commander Tuesday.

British Maj. Gen. Christopher Ghika, a senior officer in the U.S.-backed coalition fighting the Islamic State group in Iraq and Syria, said, "Theres been no increased threat from Iranian-backed forces in Iraq and Syria." Urban rebutted Ghika's remarks in a sign of how the United Statesand its closeallies have split over Iran's potential threat.

Applying "maximum pressure" on Iran is a central tenet of the Trump administration's foreign policy. Trump withdrewthe United Statesfrom a nuclear deal reached between Iran and world powers in 2015, reimposed crushing sanctions and boosted the U.S. military presence in the Persian Gulf. Unease that Washington and Tehran could be headed toward military confrontation has mounted.

Iran to Trump: You areplaying 'very dangerous game,' risking 'devastating war'

In Baghdad, the U.S. Embassy published a statement Wednesday sayingthe State Department mandated thatall nonemergency government staff leave the country after Washington said last week it detected urgent "credible" threats from Iran and its proxy forces in the region targeting Americans and U.S. interests.

Specific details about the intelligence havenot been revealed.

Saudi Arabia said this week that two of its oil tankers and other energy-related infrastructure were damaged in an act of "sabotage" in theGulf. Yemen's Iran-backed Houthi rebels, who are fighting a war with Saudi Arabia, claimed responsibility for drone attacks on Saudi oil facilities Tuesday.

Federica Mogherini, Europe'stop foreign affairs diplomat, called for theUnited Statesto show"maximum restraint" after meeting with U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.

Mixed messages: Varied points of view from Trump onIran

When the UnitedStatespulled out of the nuclear deal in May last year, the other signatories to the accord Britain, China, France, Germany, Russia and the European Union vowed to stay in and establish a financial mechanism that would allow them to keep trade and other ties with Iran open amid the U.S. sanctions. They have struggled to achieve that. As a result, Iran gave European countries 60 daysto find a way of salvaging the agreementor it would start enriching uranium to far higher levels.

If nothing happens when the 60 days are up, "there will be consequences from our side," Hamid Baeidinejad, Irans ambassador to the United Kingdom, told USA TODAY and other media outlets during a briefing in Iran's Embassy in London on Tuesday.

Successive U.S. administrations have viewed Iran as a regional troublemaker and described it as the "largest state sponsor of terrorism." Tehranaids a number of Shiitemilitant groups in Iraq, Lebanon, Syriaand elsewhere across the Middle East. The Trump administration pulled out of the nuclear deal in part because of that and also because the deal does not address Iran's ballistic missile activity.

The United States and Iran have been lobbing threats, fighting proxy wars, and imposing sanctions for decades. USA Today looks at over 60 years of this back-and-forth. Just the FAQs, USA TODAY

Iran or its proxies, such as Hezbollah, Hamas and the Taliban, havecarried out bombings, abductions and hijackings against the USAand other Western nations.

"Iran is certain to continue to pursue its regional strategy,unless and until its adversaries are willing or able to blunt Irans efforts," the authors of a new report bythe Soufan Center, a global security research center, wrote."Rolling back Tehrans regional influence will require an equally nimble approach combining diplomacy, smart counter-terrorism policy, and a nuanced understanding of how and why Irans soft power efforts have been successful so they may be effectively countered."

New Jersey Sen. Bob Menendez, the top Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said lawmakers needed an immediate briefing from Trump administration officials on the alleged threats from Iran. He said there are only two reasons for the State Departmentto order the departure of U.S. Embassy staff from Baghdad: credible intelligence Americans are at riskor preparation for military action.

"The Trump administration has not provided any information to this committee on the intelligence behind their decisions or what they plan to do in Iraq or Iran," he said.

War plan?: Trump dismisses report of plan to send troops to Middle East

A U.S. Patriot missile defense system is stationed at the Israeli air force base in Hatzor.(Photo: ATEF SAFADI, EPA-EFE)

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Contributing: Deirdre Shesgreen

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May 14, 2019, 2:56 PM UTC

By Alexander Smith and Kennett Werner

At first glance, it was possible to miss the puncture at the waterline of the Andrea Victory, a 600-foot Norwegian oil tanker anchored off the United Arab Emirates.

The damage appeared relatively minor, and no one has been officially blamed.

And yet, there are growing fears that this mysterious, obscure incident could become a catalyst accidental or otherwise that inflames the already knife-edge tensions between the United States and Iran.

The Andrea Victory was one of four ships damaged in what officials are calling a coordinated sabotage attack carried out early Sunday.

Two of the ships were from Saudi Arabia, and one of them was set to deliver crude oil to the U.S., according to Riyadh's energy ministry. A fourth vessel nearby was also damaged.

There does not appear to be any official, publicly released information implicating Iran in the incident, save the country's proximity some 60 miles across the Gulf of Oman.

"The available data on the incident is still too scant to pin blame," according to Mohammad Shabani, a researcher at SOAS University of London.

Nonetheless, at a moment of acute tension with Washington, Iran has quickly become the focus of the fallout.

Since his election in 2016, President Donald Trump and his team have consistently taken a more hawkish stance toward the country than the Obama administration.

The president withdrew from a landmark deal designed to curb Iran's nuclear program last year. Trump complained that, although Iran was complying, the agreement was too soft.

Then the U.S. deployed an aircraft carrier and B-52 bombers to the Persian Gulf last week to counter alleged threats from Tehran.

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It also warned that there was an increased risk of Iran "targeting commercial vessels, including oil tankers, or U.S. military vessels" in the region.

On Monday, Trump stopped short of blaming the country directly for this incident.

"We'll see what happens with Iran. If they do anything, it will be a very bad mistake," he told reporters. "If they do anything, they will suffer greatly."

Separately, Saudi Arabia on Tuesday blamed Yemeni rebels aligned with Iran for launching explosives-laden drones at oil facilities. State oil company Aramco shut down pumping on one of its pipelines and oil prices rose sharply, but no injuries or deaths were reported.

The rising temperature has prompted some politicians and experts in Europe to urge calm particularly when so much seems unclear about who carried out the attack.

"We are very worried about the risk of a conflict happening by accident," British Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt said at a summit in Brussels with U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.

Hunt said he was concerned about "an escalation that is unintended really on either side but ends with some kind of conflict." He called for "a period of calm to make sure that everyone understands what the other side is thinking."

It was the latest sign of daylight between the U.S. and its European allies on their policies regarding Iran. While the European Union shares some of Washington's concerns about the Islamic republic, the 28-country bloc still backs the nuclear deal and wants to salvage it.

What worries some experts in Europe is the bellicose rhetoric being exchanged between the U.S. and Iran.

Never mind who was behind Sunday's attack, it is the mere uncertainty surrounding it, combined with the warlike words exchanged by both sides, that escalates the risk for some misunderstanding leading to war, so this theory goes.

"Regardless of whether these ships got hit by Iranians or not, the Americans and the Iranians have gotten themselves into this cycle where neither seems to be able to back down from making belligerent statements," according to Michael Stephens, a research fellow at the Royal United Services Institute, a London-based think tank.

The tough talk employed by Trump, Pompeo and national security adviser John Bolton carries significant and perhaps unintended and unforeseen risks, Stephens said.

"If that's what drives the Iranians to the negotiating table, then it's a successful tactic," he said. "But it really is playing with fire, and all it takes is for one thing to go wrong because the Middle East is a tinderbox."

The crux of all this is the debilitated Iran nuclear deal.

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani warned last week that his country might restart enrichment of higher grade nuclear fuel if other nations do not help get around the restrictions imposed by Trump after he pulled out of the agreement.

"The crunch point is whether Iran decides to pull back from its commitments on the nuclear deal," Stephens said. "If it does that, then I think all bets are off really."

For its part, Iran has denied all involvement in Sunday's maritime sabotage. While information is scant, some analysts believe the country would be reluctant to sanction such a direct assault and risk triggering a war it would surely lose.

Iran's foreign ministry echoed the conspiracy theories bouncing around some corners of the internet, suggesting it may have been some kind of false-flag operation staged as a convenient pretext to war.

Spokesman Abbas Mousavi spoke of a vague "conspiracy orchestrated by ill-wishers" and "adventurism by foreigners," according to the state-run IRNA news agency.

As the New Yorker magazine pointed out Monday, the U.S. does have "a long history of provoking, instigating, or launching wars based on dubious, flimsy, or manufactured threats."

Perhaps the most famous of these were the disputed Gulf of Tonkin attacks in 1964 that led to the U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War.

Another possibility is that a militant group such as Al Qaeda carried out the assault.

Whoever is responsible, the lack of information is doing little to calm the red-hot tensions that have risen in this part of the world since Trump's inauguration.

"Everyone is being really careful because the implications can be as dangerous as the facts," said Sanam Vakil, senior research fellow at Chatham House, another London think tank.

"Everybodys posturing," she added, "but with all this heightened rhetoric and movement of military equipment, of course anything could happen and thats what makes this so dangerous."

Alexander Smith is a London-based senior reporter forNBC News Digital.

Kennett Werner is a reporter for NBC News.

Reuters and Associated Press contributed.

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President Donald Trump denied a New York Times report that his administration is planning to send as many as 120,000 troops to the Middle East in the event of hostilities with Iran, but said hed send a hell of a lot more if war breaks out.

I think its fake news, OK? Trump said of the Times report. Now would I do that? Absolutely. But I have not planned for that. If we did that, wed send a hell of a lot more troops than that.

Tensions are rising with the Islamic Republic after the Trump administration revoked waivers this month that allowed Iran to continue selling oil to some customers despite U.S. sanctions. Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates reported on Monday mysterious attacks on several vessels including oil tankers in the Persian Gulf, and the Iran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen claimed on Tuesday they had damaged Saudi oil pumping stations on Tuesday using drones.

Trump warned Iran against provocations yesterday. If they do anything, it will be a very bad mistake, he told reporters in the Oval Office.

The Times reported that the presidents top national security aides met on Thursday to discuss updated war plans with Iran. The plans envision sending as many as 120,000 troops to the Middle East should Iran attack American forces or accelerate work on nuclear weapons, the Times said.

The Times said the plans do not call for a land invasion of Iran, which would require many more troops.

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Trump Says He'd Send More Than 120,000 Troops to Fight Iran

RIYADH/DUBAI (Reuters) - Saudi Arabia said armed drones struck two of its oil pumping stations on Tuesday, two days after the sabotage of oil tankers near the United Arab Emirates, and the U.S. military said it was braced for possibly imminent threats to U.S. forces in Iraq from Iran-backed forces.

The attacks took place against a backdrop of U.S.-Iranian tension following Washingtons decision this month to try to cut Irans oil exports to zero and to beef up its military presence in the Gulf in response to what it said were Iranian threats.

Tuesdays attacks on the pumping stations more than 200 miles (320 km) west of Riyadh and Sundays on four tankers off Fujairah emirate have raised concerns that the United States and Iran might inching toward military conflict.

However, U.S. President Donald Trump denied a New York Times report that U.S. officials were discussing a military plan to send up to 120,000 troops to the Middle East to counter any attack or nuclear weapons acceleration by Iran.

Its fake news, OK? Now, would I do that? Absolutely. But we have not planned for that. Hopefully were not going to have to plan for that. And if we did that, wed send a hell of a lot more troops than that, Trump told reporters.

Irans Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said there would not be war with the United States despite mounting tensions over Iranian nuclear capabilities, its missile program and its support for proxies in Yemen, Iraq, Syria and Lebanon.

There wont be any war. The Iranian nation has chosen the path of resistance, he said in comments carried by Irans state TV. He repeated that Tehran would not negotiate with Washington over Irans 2015 nuclear deal with major powers.

The U.S. military cited possible imminent threats to its troops in Iraq and said they were now on high alert. The U.S. was responding to comments from a British deputy commander of the U.S.-led coalition fighting Islamic State remnants in Iraq and Syria who said there had been no increase in the threat from Iran-backed militia.

The comments run counter to the identified credible threats available to intelligence from U.S. and allies regarding Iranian backed forces in the region, said Navy Captain Bill Urban, a spokesman at the U.S. militarys Central Command.

Trump withdrew the United States from the Iran nuclear deal a year ago and has sharply increased economic sanctions on Iran.

Under the accord negotiated by Trumps predecessor Barack Obama, Iran agreed to curb its uranium enrichment capacity, a potential pathway to a nuclear bomb, in return for sanctions relief.

The Trump administrations sanctions are designed to choke off Irans oil exports in an effort to force Iran to accept more stringent limits on its nuclear and missile programs as well as to rein in its support for proxy forces in the region.

U.S. national security agencies believe proxies sympathetic to or working for Iran may have sabotaged the tankers near the UAE rather than Iranian forces themselves, a U.S. official familiar with the latest U.S. assessments said.

The official said possible perpetrators might include Houthi rebels in Yemen and Iran-backed Shiite militias based in Iraq, but Washington had no hard evidence. On Monday, a U.S. official said Iran was a leading candidate for the tanker sabotage but the United States did not have conclusive proof.

Iran rejects the allegation of Iranian involvement and Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said that extremist individuals in the U.S. government were pursuing dangerous policies.

A senior European diplomat voiced skepticism that Trumps maximum pressure strategy would force Iran to capitulate.

Iran is not falling to its knees, said the diplomat on condition of anonymity, saying Iran could resume its nuclear work and leave Washington with no option but military action.

Does Trump want to go to war with Iran especially during an election campaign year? he asked.

Democratic Party candidates are already campaigning ahead of the November 2020 U.S. election aiming to stop Republican Trump being re-elected.

Houthi-run Masirah TV earlier said the group had carried out drone attacks on vital Saudi installations in response to continued aggression and blockade on Yemen.

A Saudi-led coalition has been battling the Houthis for four years in Yemen to try to restore the internationally recognized government in a conflict widely seen as a Saudi-Iran proxy war.

The Houthis have hit Saudi cities with drones and missiles, but two Saudi sources told Reuters this was the first time a facility of the state-run Aramco had been attacked by drones.

Aramco said it had temporarily shut down the East-West pipeline, known as Petroline, to evaluate its condition. The pipeline mainly transports crude from the kingdoms eastern fields to the port of Yanbu, which lies north of Bab al-Mandeb.

The energy minister of Saudi Arabia, the worlds largest oil exporter, said the latest attacks caused a fire, now contained, and minor damage at one pump station, but did not disrupt oil output or exports of crude and petroleum products.

Oil prices rose on news of the attack on the Saudi pumping stations. Brent futures gained $1.01, or 1.4 percent, to settle at $71.24 a barrel.

Saudi Arabias cabinet said the terrorist attack against two Saudi oil tankers near the UAE reflected poorly on regional and international security, Saudi Press agency reported.

It quoted the cabinet as saying it was the international communitys shared responsibility to preserve maritime safety and oil tankers security in anticipation of any effects on energy markets, and the danger of that on world economy.

The UAE has not blamed anyone for what it called sabotage on the vessels. The UAE said the other tankers hit were a UAE-flagged fuel bunker barge and a Norwegian-registered oil products tanker near Fujairah, one of the worlds largest bunkering hubs just outside the Strait of Hormuz.

A fifth of global oil consumption passes through the strait from Middle East crude producers to much of the world.

A UAE official told Reuters the UAE was working with local and international partners from the United States, Saudi Arabia, Norway and France - which has a naval base in Abu Dhabi - to fully investigate the incident and to identify the people or entities responsible.

Reporting by Stephen Kalin and Rania El Gamal; Additional reporting by Alexander Cornwell, Asma Alsharif, Aziz El Yaakoubi and Davide Barbuscia in Dubai; Ahmed Aboulenein in Baghdad; Mark Hosenball, Doina Chiacu, Makini Brice, Idrees Ali and Phil Stewart in Washington; Bozorgmehr Sharafedin in London and John Irish in Paris; Writing by Ghaida Ghantous and Arshad Mohammed; Editing by Grant McCool

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Iranian President Hassan Rouhani says Iran will begin keeping its excess uranium and heavy water, and he set a 60-day deadline for new terms to its nuclear deal before the country will resume higher uranium enrichment. Rouhani is seen here at a cabinet meeting in Tehran on Wednesday. Iranian Presidency Office/AP hide caption

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani says Iran will begin keeping its excess uranium and heavy water, and he set a 60-day deadline for new terms to its nuclear deal before the country will resume higher uranium enrichment. Rouhani is seen here at a cabinet meeting in Tehran on Wednesday.

Updated at 9 a.m. ET

Iran's president says increased uranium enrichment will begin in 60 days if world powers don't shield it from U.S. sanctions, under the terms of the 2015 nuclear agreement. The move is a signal to the world that Tehran is losing patience with U.S. efforts to punish Iran economically.

The news comes exactly one year after President Trump pulled the U.S. out of the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, calling it "a horrible one-sided deal." In August, the Trump administration restored some of the sanctions that were lifted as part of the deal.

President Hassan Rouhani announced on Wednesday that Tehran will start keeping larger amounts of enriched uranium and heavy water, instead of selling the excess to other countries, as the deal requires.

And he said that if the other countries in the accord haven't figured out how to shield Iran's oil and banking industries from U.S. sanctions, Iran will begin enriching uranium to higher levels, ending a commitment made under the deal. The return of U.S. sanctions has been damaging to Iran's economy.

"If the five countries came to the negotiating table and we reached an agreement and if they could protect our interests in the oil and banking sectors, we will go back to square one," Rouhani said, according to Reuters.

The Iran deal was negotiated by the Obama administration with the U.K., China, France, Germany and Russia. It paused sanctions in exchange for curbs and checks on Tehran's nuclear program.

Rouhani said the announced actions are in line with the deal's requirements.

U.S. national security adviser John Bolton released a statement Sunday night that said the U.S. "is deploying the USS Abraham Lincoln Carrier Strike Group and a bomber task force to the U.S. Central Command region to send a clear and unmistakable message to the Iranian regime that any attack on United States interests or on those of our allies will be met with unrelenting force."

Iran said the aircraft carrier was simply being rotated in as scheduled and called Bolton's announcement "psychological warfare." The Pentagon confirmed the move was a scheduled rotation but said it had been "expedited," Reuters reports.

Brian Hook, a State Department adviser on Iran, tells NPR's Morning Edition that "we had indications of heightened Iranian readiness to conduct offensive operations against U.S. forces and or interest in the Middle East. So after we received these multiple credible threats by Iranian regime forces, we repositioned our military assets accordingly."

"If US and clients don't feel safe, it's because they're despised by the people of the region blaming Iran won't reverse that," Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said on Twitter.

China's foreign ministry said Wednesday that the U.S. had "further aggravated" tensions with Iran and called on all parties to exercise constraint, The Associated Press reports. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, who was meeting with Zarif on Wednesday, said the accord had been complicated by Washington's "irresponsible behavior."

NPR International Correspondent Peter Kenyon contributed to this report.

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