Axios, citing two U.S. officials and a regional source, reported that the U.S. Army has sent two additional Patriot missile defense batteries to Saudi Arabia and Qatar in recent weeks in order to protect key oil and gas facilities in those countries if the United States resumes broad military operations against the Islamic Republic. One battery has been deployed to protect an oil facility in Saudi Arabia, and the other to defend a natural gas facility in Qatar.

According to Axios, the move was intended to reassure Saudi Arabia and Qatar about the protection of their energy infrastructure. In August, leaders of the two countries had asked Donald Trump, the President of the United States, not to target Iran’s energy facilities, because they were concerned about retaliatory attacks by the Islamic Republic on their own oil and gas facilities. U.S. officials said these concerns were one of the factors behind Trump’s decision at that time to focus on an economic pressure campaign rather than broad military operations.