Press Gaggle With Air Force Brigadier General Pat Ryder, Pentagon Press Secretary

BRIGADIER GENERAL PAT RYDER: So first of all, Secretary Austin is going to host the Iraqi minister of defense, Thabet Mohammad Al-Abbasi, here in the Pentagon today for bilateral discussions on U.S.-Iraq security cooperation and we do look forward to hosting the minister and his delegation, and we'll have a readout posted later today. We're still continuing to monitor the situation in Niger. At this time, there's been no change to U.S. military force posture in the country, and has been the case, we remain focused right now on a diplomatic solution. And then finally, several of you have asked previously about the status of U.S. forces deploying into the Middle East region to support deterren...