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2nd Carrier Being Sent to Middle East 02/13 06:21
The United States will send the world's largest aircraft carrier to the
Middle East to back up another already there, a person familiar with the plans
said Friday, putting more American firepower behind President Donald Trump's
efforts to coerce Iran into a deal over its nuclear program.
WASHINGTON (AP) -- The United States will send the world's largest aircraft
carrier to the Middle East to back up another already there, a person familiar
with the plans said Friday, putting more American firepower behind President
Donald Trump's efforts to coerce Iran into a deal over its nuclear program.
The USS Gerald R. Ford's planned deployment to the Mideast comes after Trump
only days earlier suggested another round of talks with the Iranians was at
hand. Those negotiations didn't materialize as one of Tehran's top security
officials visited Oman and Qatar this week and exchanged messages with the U.S.
intermediaries.
Already, Gulf Arab nations have warned any attack could spiral into another
regional conflict in a Mideast still reeling from the Israel-Hamas war in the
Gaza Strip. Meanwhile, Iranians are beginning to hold 40-day mourning
ceremonies for the thousands killed in Tehran's bloody crackdown on nationwide
protests last month, adding to the internal pressure faced by the
sanctions-battered Islamic Republic.
The Ford's deployment, first reported by The New York Times, will put two
carriers and their accompanying warships in the region. Already, the USS
Abraham Lincoln and its accompanying guided-missile destroyers are in the
Arabian Sea.
The person who spoke to The Associated Press on the deployment did so on
condition of anonymity to discuss military movements.
Ford had been part of Venezuela strike force
It marks a quick turnaround for the Ford, which Trump sent from the
Mediterranean Sea to the Caribbean last October as the administration build up
a huge military presence in the lead-up to the surprise raid last month that
captured then-Venezuelan President Nicols Maduro.
It also appears to be at odds with Trump's national security strategy, which
put an emphasis on the Western Hemisphere over other parts of the world.
Trump on Thursday warned Iran that failure to reach a deal with his
administration would be "very traumatic." Iran and the United States held
indirect talks in Oman last week.
"I guess over the next month, something like that," Trump said in response
to a question about his timeline for striking a deal with Iran on its nuclear
program. "It should happen quickly. They should agree very quickly."
Trump told Axios earlier this week that he was considering sending a second
carrier strike group to the Middle East.
Trump held lengthy talks with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on
Wednesday and said he insisted to Israel's leader that negotiations with Iran
needed to continue. Netanyahu is urging the administration to press Tehran to
scale back its ballistic missile program and end its support for militant
groups such as Hamas and Hezbollah as part of any deal.
The USS Ford set out on deployment in late June 2025, which means the crew
will have been deployed for eight months in two weeks time. While it is unclear
how long the ship will remain in the Middle East, the move sets the crew up for
an usually long deployment.
The White House didn't immediately respond to a request for comment.
Ford's deployment comes as Iran mourns
Iran at home faces still-simmering anger over its wide-ranging suppression
of all dissent in the Islamic Republic. That rage may intensify in the coming
days as families of the dead begin marking the traditional 40-day mourning for
the loved ones. Already, online videos have shown mourners gathering in
different parts of the country, holding portraits of their dead.
One video purported to show mourners at a graveyard in Iran's Razavi
Khorasan province, home to Mashhad, on Thursday. There, with a large portable
speaker, people sang the patriotic song "Ey Iran," which dates to 1940s Iran
under the rule of Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi. While initially banned after the
1979 Islamic Revolution, Iran's theocratic government has played it to drum up
support.
"Oh Iran, a land of full of jewels, your soil is full of art," they sang.
"May evil wishes be far from you. May you live eternal. Oh enemy, if you are a
piece of granite, I am iron."
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