Washington Pentagon denied media reports that the United States would double its forces in the Middle East to counter the threat from Iran.

"Please clarify, this information is not true. The United States does not consider bringing 14,000 more troops to the Middle East," Pentagon spokesman Alyssa Farah said on Twitter on 5 December.

The statement was made by Farah after the WSJ quoted an unnamed official as saying that the US could send dozens of warships, various military equipment and 14,000 soldiers to the Middle East to respond to the threat from Iran. This number will double the force deployed to the region since May.

Tensions between Iran and the US have been escalating since the middle of last year, when President Trump unilaterally withdrew Washington from a nuclear deal signed in 2015 and re-imposed sanctions to put maximum pressure on Tehran. The US increased its military presence in the Middle East in May when it dispatched the aircraft carrier Abraham Lincoln to the region, after intelligence reports claimed that Iran was moving missiles on battleships in the Gulf.

The Iranian military on June 20 shot down a US $ 200 million unmanned aircraft over accusations of violating airspace, while Washington insisted it was operating only in international airspace. Iranian warships and helicopters also repeatedly approach US warships operating in the Strait of Hormuz.

The United States accused Iran of being behind an attack on Saudi Arabia's largest refinery on September 14, but Tehran denied it. In October, Defense Secretary Mark Esper announced that he would send two fighter squadrons and add missile defense units to Saudi Arabia, estimated at 3,000 troops.

Iran recently abruptly softened its tone to the United States when President Hassan Rouhani said it was ready to negotiate a nuclear deal if Washington abandoned "illegal" sanctions.