Washington, Jan 27: The USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier and a number of guided-missile destroyers have arrived in the Middle East region, amid fears that President Donald Trump could finally order a strike on Iran.
President Trump had warned last week that an “armada” was on its way, saying his administration was “watching” Iran following weeks of deadly protests across the country.
“We have a lot of ships going that direction, just in case … I’d rather not see anything happen, but we’re watching them very closely,” Trump told reporters on board Air Force One on Thursday.
“We have an armada … heading in that direction, and maybe we won’t have to use it.”
The movement of the US warships towards the Middle East comes as Iran’s powerful Revolutionary Guard Corps warned that their forces had their “finger on the trigger.”
CENTCOM confirmed with a social media post that the USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier and the other vessels in its strike group were sailing in the Indian Ocean after being deployed to the Middle East — in the first public acknowledgment from the Department of Defense that the carrier group had reached Central Command’s vast area of responsibility.
The US military said it would carry out an exercise to “demonstrate the ability to deploy, disperse, and sustain combat airpower” in the Middle East, the latest indication of an increasingly aggressive foreign policy stance adopted by the Trump administration in the president’s second term.
The strike group is comprised of the Lincoln and three guided missile destroyers: the USS Frank E. Petersen, Jr., the USS Spruance and the USS Michael Murphy. On board the Lincoln are squadrons of F/A-18E/F Super Hornets, EA-18G Growlers, F-35C fighter jets and MH-60R/S helicopters.
Trump repeatedly warned Iranian leaders against the killing of peaceful demonstrators — who started protesting in late December in the largest challenge to the country’s ruling regime in years — and then against the mass execution of people detained during the unrest.
Over the weekend, Nournews, a news outlet close to Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, said on its Telegram channel that Gen. Mohammad Pakpour had warned the US and Israel, “to avoid any miscalculation.”
“The Islamic Revolutionary Guards and dear Iran stand more ready than ever, finger on the trigger, to execute the orders and directives of the Commander-in-Chief,” Pakpour was quoted as saying.
On Monday, Iran’s Defense Ministry spokesperson Gen. Reza Talaei-Nik warned Israel and the US against any attack, saying it would “be met with a response that is more painful and more decisive than in the past.”
The Iranian government is bracing itself for a fresh US and Israeli missile assault after it was announced that the USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier strike group has now deployed key assets to the region, observers have said.
It is thought that Washington has the firepower in conjunction with Israeli aircraft to mount an attack designed to topple the government accused of brutally suppressing protests and killing thousands of Iranians. With no signs of a diplomatic breakthrough imminent, the Iranian stock market suffered a record daily fall on Monday.
Regional powers including the United Arab Emirates declared they will not allow their airspace or territorial waters to be used to mount an attack on Iran but the presence of the carrier strike group in the Mediterranean means permission will not be needed from many third parties for an attack.