No one wanted President Trump to pulled the United States out of the Iran nuclear deal. The agreement signed by President Obama held that Iran would get rid its nuclear fuel in exchange for

the U.S. waiving the sanctions that had crippled the nation’s economy. A UN nuclear agency monitored whether Iran was complying. Though many called the deal flawed, few argued it should be

scrapped altogether. The international community, nuclear proliferation experts and administration officials like Defense Secretary James Mattis and Secretary of State Rex Tillerson all

urged Donald Trump to keep it intact. But laying waste to anything that could have been perceived as an accomplishment by his predecessor was at the top of Trump’s priority list, and the

that involves sending up to 120,000 troops to the Middle East should Iran show aggression against American forces or resume its nuclear program. The _Times_ learned of the plan, which was

presented last week by Acting Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan, through discussions with several national security officials. The plan to send troops overseas was devised by National

Security Adviser John Bolton, a conflict hawk who unsuccessfully lobbied for action against Iran while serving in the George W. Bush administration. Bolton also supported the invasion of

Iraq. As the _Times_ notes, the “120,000 troops would approach the size of the American force that invaded Iraq in 2003.” TRENDING STORIES As many have pointed out, the plan looks like a

precursor for regime change. https://twitter.com/ColinKahl/status/1128104693966577664 The news of the potential deployment comes as tension between the United States and Iran has approached

a boiling point. The most recent flare up came Sunday, when four oil ships, two of which belonged to Saudi Arabia, were damaged in the Persian Gulf. On Monday, a team of U.S. investigators

reached an initial determination that Iran or groups that support it were behind the attack. Trump was not pleased when asked about the incident. “It’s going to be a bad problem for Iran if

something happens,” he warned on Monday. EDITOR’S PICKS The attack came days after the Trump administration deployed the USS Abraham Lincoln and four B-52 bombers to the Middle East to

counter what Bolton described as “a number of troubling and escalatory indications and warnings” from Iran. “The United States is not seeking war with the Iranian regime, but we are fully

prepared to respond to any attack, whether by proxy, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, or regular Iranian forces,” he added. Iran called the deployment “psychological warfare” and, on

Friday, said it would not negotiate with the United States. Following Iran’s act of aggression in the Persian Gulf on Sunday, Foreign Minister Javad Zarif said that though the nation does

“not seek escalation,” it has “always defended” itself. The recent frenzy is the result of months of incendiary rhetoric and aggressive actions exchanged between the two nations since Trump

pulled out of the nuclear deal last May. Iran did not take kindly to the move. Ayatollah Ali Khamenei went so far as to tell supporters that the Islamic Republic will still be standing after

“Trump is dead” and “his corpse is fed on by snakes and insects.” Though a little less graphic, threats from Iranian President Hassan Rouhani were similarly pointed. Trump, as he does,

responded in kind. > To Iranian President Rouhani: NEVER, EVER THREATEN THE UNITED STATES > AGAIN OR YOU WILL SUFFER CONSEQUENCES THE LIKES OF WHICH FEW > THROUGHOUT HISTORY HAVE 

EVER SUFFERED BEFORE. WE ARE NO LONGER A > COUNTRY THAT WILL STAND FOR YOUR DEMENTED WORDS OF VIOLENCE & DEATH. > BE CAUTIOUS! >  > — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 

23, 2018 Relations haven’t gotten any better since last summer. In November, the administration restored the sanctions that had been lifted when the nuclear deal was signed in 2015. Trump

heralded the move with a “Sanctions Are Coming” _Game of Thrones_ meme. “Our ultimate aim is to compel Iran to permanently abandon its well-documented outlaw activities and behave as a

normal country,” Secretary of State Mike Pompeo told reporters at the time. The administration continued to apply pressure in April by labeling Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps a

terrorist organization, making it illegal for any group to offer it support. President Rouhani maintained that Iran would continue to build its military might despite the designation. Later

that month, Pompeo announced the cancelation of sanctions waivers that had been offered to countries importing Iranian oil. “The Trump Administration and our allies are determined to sustain

and expand the maximum economic pressure campaign against Iran to end the regime’s destabilizing activity threatening the United States, our partners and allies, and security in the Middle

East,” the White House said in a statement. Unfortunately, Iran has made it abundantly clear that it has no intention of acquiescing to America’s vision of how it should conduct itself in

the Middle East. Any action to hamstring the nation has been met with steadfast defiance. That defiance now teeters on the brink of military action against American forces and, potentially,

something much worse. On Wednesday, President Rouhani said Iran will being to resume producing nuclear material. “The path we have chosen today is not the path of war, it is the path of

diplomacy,” he said in a nationally broadcast address. “But diplomacy with a new language and a new logic.” The United States responded by imposing even more sanctions on Iran, putting

“other nations on notice that allowing Iranian steel and other metals into your ports will no longer be tolerated,” as Trump described the move in a statement. RELATED When asked on Monday

whether the United States would pursue a regime change, Trump was noncommittal. “We’ll see what happens with Iran,” he said.