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Q: Thank you, Mr. Secretary. It's Robert Burns of Associated Press. The White House a few days said that it was putting Iran on notice. The question is on notice for what? And as defense secretary, are you going to put more military muscle behind those words? For example, by deploying a second aircraft carrier to the Gulf, or making other military contingency moves? Otherwise aren't those just empty words, to put them on notice?
And if I may ask you in a related question you said earlier, including at your confirmation hearing that you felt that the counter-ISIL campaign should be accelerated. I'm wondering as it pertains to recapturing Raqqa will this possibly involve sending more U.S. troops to Syria?
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STAFF: As far as Iran goes, this is single biggest state sponsor of terrorism in the world, and I think it is wise to make certain that Iran recognizes that what it is doing is getting the attention of a lot of people, and we have responsibility, along with the rest of the nations that want to maintain stability to be absolutely clear with Iran in this regard. It does no good to ignore it. It does no good to dismiss it. And at the same time I don't see any need to increase the number of forces we have in the Middle East at this time. That's not in the cards right now. We always have the capability to do so, but right now I don't think it's necessary.
But I would also just say that we do not have a situation, vis a vis Iran, that shows respect, again, for the rules-based international order. We have seen their misconduct, their misbehavior from Lebanon and Syria to Bahrain and to Yemen, and it's got to be addressed at some point.
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