Did the U.S. Congress declare war on Iran and its proxies in the Middle East and did the Pentagon dispatch 150,000 troops trained in street fighting to the United Arab Emirates in preparation to invade Iran? No, that's not true: There is no U.S. declaration of war against Iran and no evidence that US troops are gathering in the UAE for an invasion. The White House emphasized earlier in February 2024 that Washington "does not seek conflict" with Tehran.
The claim appeared in a video (archived here) on TikTok on February 28, 2024, with captions translated into English from Arabic by Lead Stories staff reading:
Urgent News: Pentagon dispatches more than 150,000 soldiers, trained on street fighting, to the United Arab Emirates in preparation for entering Iran.
And:
Congress declares war on Iran and its agents in Iraq, Syria, Lebanon and Yemen. Iran will be struck directly and the Emirates opens its bases for American forces.
This is what the post looked like on TikTok at the time of writing:
(Source: TikTok screenshot taken on Wed Feb 28 13:49:10 2024 UTC)
The video was posted by an account called @nekofg (archived here) that also goes by other names, such as @Zack99 (archived here) and @Zack9FG (archived here). Each of the pages has thousands of followers. Some of his posts -- with mostly exaggerated or false headlines -- attracted millions of viewers.
The video depicts generic footage of flying fighter jets, U.S. and U.K. military personnel, and aircraft carrier operations with narration provided by Iraqi television presenter Ahmed al-Adhame (biography archived here). The narrator provides an analysis of developments in the Middle East regarding Iran and its Houthi allies in Yemen, who have been recently attacking vessels in the Red Sea. Al-Adhame's TikTok page (archived here) shows he has nearly 738,000 followers.
White House National Security spokesperson John Kirby said in remarks (archived here) posted on the White House's website on February 2, 2024, that Washington's goal is not a confrontation with Tehran. "The United States does not seek conflict with Iran or in the broader Middle East," Kirby said. But as President Joe "Biden has made clear, we will not hesitate to defend our people and hold responsible all those who harm Americans, at a time and a place of our choosing."
The U.S. political website The Hill (archived here) reported on January 31, 2024, that America's "mounting proxy battle with Iran over the past three months is spurring questions about whether the countries are at war." It pointed out that there were more than 160 attacks on U.S. troops in Iraq, Syria and Jordan, 37 clashes in the Red Sea with the Houthis and deaths of five U.S. service members. It said the developments are also "raising questions about whether the U.S. can continue to hit back at Iranian-backed militia groups without seeking congressional authorization."
While the U.S. president has "constitutional authority to carry out strikes and take military action in self-defense from attacks on American troops and assets," the 1973 War Powers Act "puts restraints on that authority, requiring the president to seek approval from Congress, which alone has the power to declare war, within 60 days of military action beginning."
A search for "US dispatches 150,000 soldiers to UAE" on Google News (archived here) on February 28, 2024, yielded no recent or relevant reports from reliable media sources to show a large-scale US troop movement in the area, an event that if true would be widely reported.
