US sends second aircraft carrier to Middle East as Iran tensions rise
The Carl Vinson will join the Harry S. Truman as US forces hammer Yemen’s Houthi rebels with near-daily air strikes
US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth has ordered additional forces to the Middle East, including the Carl Vinson carrier strike group and aircraft, as the US continued its strikes against Iran-backed Houthi rebels and as tensions with Tehran rose over its nuclear programme.
The Carl Vinson was expected to arrive in the region after completing exercises in the Indo-Pacific. The Pentagon was also prolonging the Harry S. Truman carrier strike group’s deployment in the region, Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell said in a statement Tuesday. The unusual two-carrier presence would repeat a show of force by the Biden administration last year.
“Secretary Hegseth continues to make clear that, should Iran or its proxies threaten American personnel and interests in the region, the United States will take decisive action to defend our people,” Parnell said.
Iran’s Supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said Monday that any attack by the US or Israel would be met with “a firm retaliatory strike”, after President Donald Trump threatened to bomb Iran unless it signed a deal renouncing nuclear weapons.
His remarks follow a period of heightened tensions between Tehran and Washington. Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said last week that there would be no direct negotiations with the US as long as the Trump administration maintained its “military threats”.