Trump is \'provoking yet another war\'- Beto O\'Rourke

ROUGH CUT (NO REPORTER NARRATION) During an interview on CBS' Face the Nation program, U.S. Democratic presidential candidate Beto O'Rourke said President Donald Trump is "provoking yet another war in the Middle East." "President Trump is escalating tensions, is provoking yet another war in the Middle East, where we find ourselves already engaged in war in so many countries," O'Rourke said on Sunday (May 26).

"You have someone, in Bolton, who has publicly said he wants regime change in Iran.

The body count in that kind of war on both sides will not be measured in the hundreds or the thousands, but the tens or hundreds of thousands," he said.

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said on Saturday that the U.S. decision to deploy more troops to the Middle East in response to the perceived threat from Iran was "extremely dangerous" for peace.

The United States said it was sending 1,500 troops to the region in what it called an effort to bolster defenses against Tehran, and it accused Iran's Revolutionary Guards of direct responsibility for attacks on tankers this month.

U.S. President Donald Trump also invoked the threat from Iran to declare a national security-related emergency that would clear the sale of billions of dollars' worth of weapons to Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and other countries without congressional approval.

It follows decisions to speed up the deployment of an aircraft carrier strike group as well as to send bombers and additional Patriot missiles to the Middle East.