Despite the security warning that the carrier needs maintenance, US President Donald Trump claims the reason he dispatched a second aircraft carrier is that it will be "needed" if a nuclear deal is not reached with Iran.
rump confirmed on Friday that he is sending a second aircraft carrier group to the Middle East, warning it would be a “bad day for Iran” if Tehran fails to reach a deal on its nuclear program.
American president said the move when asked about reports that the USS Gerald R. Ford would be redeployed from the Caribbean to the Middle East. “In case we don’t make a deal, we’ll need it,” Trump told journalists at the White House. “It’ll be leaving very soon. We have one out there that just arrived. If we need it we’ll have it ready, a very big force.”
additionally , Trump said he believed the talks with Iran would be “successful” but cautioned: “If they’re not, it’s going to be a bad day for Iran, very bad.” The US leader had already sent one aircraft carrier, the USS Abraham Lincoln, to the Middle East, as part of a fleet of 12 US Navy ships in the region.
The four vessels led by the Ford, described as the world’s largest aircraft carrier, have been in the Caribbean, where US forces captured Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro in January. According to The New York Times, the ships are not expected to return to their home ports until late April or early May. Trump has increased military pressure against Iran following Tehran’s crackdown by security forces on protests last month. Rights groups say thousands were killed.
Rather than focusing publicly on the crackdown, Trump has recently centered his military warnings on Iran’s nuclear program. Western governments fear the program is aimed at developing a bomb, an allegation Tehran denies. The head of the UN nuclear watchdog, Rafael Grossi, said on Friday that reaching an agreement with Iran on inspections of its processing facilities was possible but “terribly difficult.”
Iran and the United States, which have had no diplomatic relations since shortly after the 1979 revolution, held talks on the nuclear issue last week in Oman. No dates have been set for further negotiations.
The United States joined Israel’s 12-day war against Iran in June, carrying out strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said after meeting Trump in Washington on Wednesday that the US president believed he could secure a “good deal.” However, Netanyahu expressed skepticism over any agreement that does not also address Iran’s ballistic missile program and its support for regional proxies.
While protests inside Iran have subsided for now, US-based Reza Pahlavi, son of the shah ousted in the 1979 revolution, urged Iranians to chant slogans against the clerical establishment in the coming days to coincide with demonstrations abroad.
Videos verified by AFP showed people in Iran chanting anti-government slogans this week as authorities marked the anniversary of the Islamic revolution. According to the US-based Human Rights Activists News Agency, 7,005 people, mostly protesters, were killed in the recent crackdown. The group added that more than 53,000 people were arrested, while rights organizations caution the toll may be higher.
The Norway-based Iran Human Rights NGO said “hundreds” of people face charges linked to the protests that could carry the death penalty.
It said one protester, Saleh Mohammadi, 18, was sentenced to death on charges of killing a policeman. Iran’s judiciary stated that no final and “enforceable” verdict has yet been issued in the case.
Three politicians associated with the reformist wing of Iranian politics supportive of President Masoud Pezeshkian — Azar Mansouri, Javad Emam, and Ebrahim Asgharzadeh — were detained this week and later released on bail Thursday and Friday, their lawyer Hojjat Kermani told the ISNA news agency.
The deployment of the second aircraft carrier underscores Washington’s warning that diplomatic progress on the nuclear file will determine the next phase of US action in the region
Meanwhile, the reality of the modern warfare as revealed even by the 12daya Israeli and US joint war against Iranian that While the US and Israeli forces burned fuel moving bombers to Iran for attacks Terhan with just launchpads responded with ballistic missiles forcing Israel to beg for ceasefire.
Any confrontations with Iran will definitely not be without casualties from both sides while the entire middle east will bleed. The global economy will also be impacted.
