TAMPA -- Secretary of State Mike Pompeo visited MacDill Air Force Base in Tampa, to hear from the brass about the Iran situation, as a thousand American troops are preparing for deployment to the Middle East.
Pompeo told reporters after the briefing that he wanted to make sure the State Department and the military were on the same page when presenting options to the President.
The mission remains "to convince the Islamic Republic of Iran that we are serious... and to deter them from further aggression in the region, " Pompeo said.
The secretary says the administration communicated a message through Japanese Prime Minister Abe, who visited Iran following a meeting with President Trump, that the United States does not want war with Iran but will do what is necessary to defend U.S. interests. He called on other nations that depend on oil shipments that go through the Gulf of Oman to do their part to defend freedom of the seas.
Pompeo told reporters he chose to travel to Tampa, rather than have the generals head to Washington, because he wanted to talk to a "broader range of leaders" and hear their ideas on a "more granular level"... to talk to not just the top brass, but the teams underneath them.
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