U.S. To Maintain Military Watch In Persian Gulf

The United States will keep nearly 30,000 troops and two aircraft carrier battle groups in the Persian Gulf region because the standoff with Iraq over U.N. weapons inspections has not abated, a Pentagon spokesman said Thursday.

President Clinton “wants to maintain maximum diplomatic and military capability in the area,” Kenneth Bacon told reporters at a briefing.

One of the two carriers now in the Gulf, the USS Nimitz, is scheduled to return to a new home port in Norfolk, Va., in early March. Bacon said it would be replaced when it leaves but declined to identify which Navy carrier might take its place.

The Nimitz and the USS George Washington have been in the Gulf when tensions with Iraq flared over the United Nations program that monitors Iraq’s suspected weapons of mass destruction.

“There are no current plans to reduce the size of our force in the Gulf,” Bacon said. “Two carrier battle groups will remain there for some time and our forces will stay at about the current level.”

Also in the region are 356 American aircraft, representing a “significant” military force, he said.