Trump sends world’s largest aircraft carrier to Middle East

Donald Trump has ordered the largest aircraft carrier in the world to move to the Middle East to increase pressure on Iran.

The USS Gerald R. Ford, the newest carrier in the US fleet, was ordered to sail from the Caribbean, where it took part in the operation to capture Nicolas Maduro.

With its last known location off Puerto Rico, the warship and its accompanying vessels may take at least a fortnight to arrive in the Arabian Sea off the coast of Iran, where it will join the USS Abraham Lincoln carrier strike group.

Mr Trump, the US president, made the move following an opening of indirect negotiations a week ago in Oman regarding Iran’s nuclear capability, ballistic missiles and support for proxies.

Both sides expressed guarded satisfaction with the opening round and a commitment to meet again.

A date and location for a further round, however, has not yet been agreed, and both sides have continued war rhetoric in recent days.

Ali Shamkhani, an adviser to Ali Khamenei, Iran’s supreme leader, said giving up missiles was a “red line”, and warned: “We will respond decisively to any adventurism – our military readiness is high.”

Reining in Iran’s ballistic missile capability was a key demand of Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, on his visit to Washington this week, although he appeared to leave disappointed after Mr Trump insisted that the talks would continue for the time being.

The arrival of the USS Gerald R Ford, which has capacity for 80 aircraft, will bring another seaborne air wing to bear, dramatically improving the US’s ability to sustain a multi-day campaign of intense strikes on the regime.

The decision to redeploy the ship, which was launched in 2013, follows a reported cooling in the White House over pursuing military action based on the view that commanders could not be sure it would achieve a significant result.

In the past month, there has also been a significant build-up of US military assets on the ground in the Middle East.

These include ground-based combat jets, air-to-air refuelling tankers and missile interception systems.

Even with the added assets, however, there remains significant doubt about whether the US could affect regime change from the air alone.

It has emerged that Iranian authorities have extracted 337 forced confessions from people arrested during January’s protests.

The Human Rights Activists News Agency in Iran, which has been documenting deaths, injuries and arrests from the unrest, said the confessions were obtained up until Thursday.

The forced confessions were reported as Iran’s main teachers’ union warned that security forces, clerics and Basij militia members have entered schools across the country after the protests.

The co-ordination council of Iranian teachers’ trade associations said in a statement: “After the protests of January 8 and 9, the security atmosphere has been drawn from the streets to educational environments and schools have practically become an arena for the presence of security institutions.”

Tehran has also announced the establishment of a “fact-finding committee” to investigate the demonstrations which initially started as protests against the high cost of living, but left thousands dead.

Iran has warned that it will target US bases in the Middle East in retaliation for any attack and has strengthened its show of military force in recent weeks.

The Revolutionary Guards unveiled the Khorramshahr 4 ballistic missile before the Feb 11 Revolution anniversary. The army’s commander-in-chief warned that Iran was “in higher defensive readiness than the 12-day war”.

Negotiations over the programme collapsed during Israel’s 12-day war with Iran last year, during which US warplanes bombed nuclear sites in the country.

The nuclear-powered USS Gerald R. Ford operates F/A-18 Super Hornet fighter planes. It cost $13bn (£10bn) to build and is equipped with dual-band radar data fusion and other advanced capabilities in its defence system.

It was previously sent to the eastern Mediterranean Sea by Joe Biden, the former president, to support Israel in 2023 two days after the attack on Oct 7.

The US has massively expanded its military presence in the region in recent weeks.

On Feb 7, around 112 C-17 Globemaster III military cargo planes reportedly arrived or made their way towards the Gulf, Army Technology reported.

Satellite images show more US aircraft stationed at the Al-Udeid and Muwaffaq air bases in Qatar and Jordan respectively.

There are detachments from at least three F-15E Strike Eagle Squadrons in Muwaffaq, as well as A-10 Thunderbolt II close support jets and E/A-18G Growler electronic warfare jets.

A number of F-35A stealth fighters are also expected to be deployed, TWZ reported.

[Source: Daily Telegraph]