South Korea says that the United States has cancelled a large joint amphibious landing exercise scheduled for next month due to constraints on force availability caused by the war with Iran, AFP reports.

The biennial Ssangyong drills involve marine forces from South Korea and the US and are designed to strengthen combined operations, typically involving warships, aircraft and ground forces rehearsing amphibious landings.

“The US Marine Corps formally notified our forces in June that its ability to deploy forces during this year’s Ssangyong exercise would be constrained due to the situation in the Middle East,” Han Seung-jeon, a spokesman for the South Korean Marine Corps, told reporters at a news briefing.

Seoul and Washington were continuing consultations on resuming the amphibious exercise, he said, without giving details.

The Pentagon did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Seoul’s announcement.