President Donald Trump said Friday he is deploying a second U.S. aircraft carrier to the Middle East as he intensifies pressure on Iran to reach a new agreement over its nuclear program.
The USS Gerald R. Ford, the world's largest aircraft carrier, is being sent from the Caribbean Sea to the Mideast to join other warships and military assets the U.S. has built up in the region. The planned deployment comes just days after Trump 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 U.S. intermediaries.
"In case we don’t make a deal, we’ll need it,” Trump told reporters about the second carrier as he left the White House for a military base in North Carolina. He added, "It’ll be leaving very soon.”
Already, Gulf Arab nations have warned that 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.
