<p class="title">Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said Saturday a US decision to deploy 1,500 additional troops to the Middle East is a 'threat to international peace', state media reported.</p>.<p class="bodytext">"Increased US presence in our region is very dangerous and a threat to international peace and security and must be confronted," Zarif told the official IRNA news agency before heading home from a visit to Pakistan.</p>.<p class="bodytext">Washington says the reinforcements, which come after the deployment earlier this month of an aircraft carrier task force, B-52 bombers, an amphibious assault ship and a missile defence system, are in response to a 'campaign' of recent attacks approved by Iran's top leadership.</p>.<p class="bodytext">"Americans make such claims to justify their hostile policies and to create tension in the Persian Gulf," Zarif said.</p>.<p class="bodytext">The United States this month ended the last exemptions it had granted from sweeping unilateral sanctions it reimposed after abandoning a landmark 2015 nuclear between major powers and Iran in May last year.</p>.<p class="bodytext">The move dealt a heavy new blow to Iran's already reeling economy as even vocal critics of the renewed sanctions, like Turkey, announced they had stopped buying Iranian oil.</p>
<p class="title">Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said Saturday a US decision to deploy 1,500 additional troops to the Middle East is a 'threat to international peace', state media reported.</p>.<p class="bodytext">"Increased US presence in our region is very dangerous and a threat to international peace and security and must be confronted," Zarif told the official IRNA news agency before heading home from a visit to Pakistan.</p>.<p class="bodytext">Washington says the reinforcements, which come after the deployment earlier this month of an aircraft carrier task force, B-52 bombers, an amphibious assault ship and a missile defence system, are in response to a 'campaign' of recent attacks approved by Iran's top leadership.</p>.<p class="bodytext">"Americans make such claims to justify their hostile policies and to create tension in the Persian Gulf," Zarif said.</p>.<p class="bodytext">The United States this month ended the last exemptions it had granted from sweeping unilateral sanctions it reimposed after abandoning a landmark 2015 nuclear between major powers and Iran in May last year.</p>.<p class="bodytext">The move dealt a heavy new blow to Iran's already reeling economy as even vocal critics of the renewed sanctions, like Turkey, announced they had stopped buying Iranian oil.</p>