The US Navy has cancelled a port stop in Vietnam for the USS Nimitz, sending that aircraft carrier and other warships escorting it to the Middle East more quickly than had been expected, defence officials said.
The Nimitz, carrying about 5000 sailors and dozens of fighter jets, was making its way west through the Strait of Malacca and is expected to head across the Indian Ocean to join US warships already in the Middle East.
Additional fighter jets also could deploy as part of the response, defence officials said, though it was not immediately clear what kind or where they will go.
US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth said in a statement posted to X that he “directed the deployment of additional capabilities” to the Middle East.
“Protecting US forces is our top priority and these deployments are intended to enhance our defensive posture in the region,” the statement said, without specifying what kinds of forces he sent.
Later on Fox News, Hegseth stressed repeatedly that the US is acting defensively but will defend its own interests.
“What it looks like right now is that we’re vigilant. We’re prepared,” Hegseth said. “And we’ve messaged consistently from the beginning that we’re in the region to defend our people and our assets.”
Hegseth added that “people are reading into a lot of aspects right now”, and then stressed again that the US is strong, prepared and acting defensively.
The moves come after Israel launched a wave of attacks last week against Iran’s nuclear weapons programme, triggering Iranian counterattacks and continued bloodshed on both sides since then.
The Israeli strikes occurred as President Donald Trump tried to secure a deal to curtail Iran’s nuclear programme, short-circuiting those negotiations, and have since expanded to target military commanders, state media, and Iran’s energy infrastructure.
The President, writing on social media yesterday, chastised Iranian leaders for not accepting “the ‘deal’ I told them to sign” before warning, “Everyone should immediately evacuate Tehran”, the country’s capital.
While Trump and other senior US officials have said that the US is not participating in the strikes, Washington is supporting Israel in other ways, including fending off Iranian attacks.
US defence officials said at the weekend that American ballistic missile defence systems, such as Patriot and Terminal High Altitude Area Defence (THAAD), were involved in taking down Iranian drones and missiles.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said during a news conference yesterday that American pilots also are targeting Iranian drones.
Netanyahu said he was in regular contact with Trump.
He said in a separate interview with ABC News that he would not rule out targeting Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, something that would mark another drastic escalation in the conflict.
A spokesman with US Central Command, which oversees military activity in the Middle East, referred questions about the US military taking down Iranian drones to the White House, which did not respond to requests for comment. Sean Parnell and Kingsley Wilson, spokespeople for Hegseth, also did not respond to requests for comment.
US ships in the Middle East
The Pentagon maintains a sprawling set of defences in the region.
- They include the aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson, which is in the Arabian Sea with the guided-missile cruiser USS Princeton and the destroyers USS Milius, USS Sterett and USS Wayne E. Meyer.
- Two additional destroyers, the USS Truxtun and USS Forrest Sherman, are in the Red Sea. Combat ship USS Canberra arrived in port in Bahrain late last month.
- The US Navy has three additional destroyers in the Mediterranean Sea. They are the USS Sullivans, the USS Arleigh Burke and the USS Thomas Hudner. The Thomas Hudner was in the western Mediterranean when the military strikes on Iran began, and has relocated to the eastern side, closer to Israel.
An expert’s view
Retired General Kenneth “Frank” McKenzie, a former head of US Central Command, said it appears to him that Israel could be pursuing regime change in Iran and that early successes in the campaign seem to have emboldened Israeli officials.
“I think this is going to continue for a while,” McKenzie said, speaking on a call with reporters organised by the Middle East Institute. “I don’t think there’s any motivation for Israel to end this right yet.”
It’s noteworthy, he added, that Iran has so far avoided attacking US bases in the region or carrying out other acts, such as mining the Strait of Hormuz, that could draw the US directly into the conflict.
Opposition to US entering war
Several Democrats in Congress have raised concerns that Trump could unilaterally choose to enter the war without seeking approval, as the US Constitution mandates.
Senator Tim Kaine filed legislation to that effect, underscoring the War Powers Resolution of 1973 and other statutes that define the terms under which the US can go to war.
He is “deeply concerned”, he said, that recent escalation between Israel and Iran “could quickly pull the US into another endless conflict”.
The resolution’s fate is uncertain.
Republicans control both chambers of Congress, and few have shown willingness to speak out against the President or take action that would curtail his authority, even as the GOP broadly is opposed to involving the US in a new foreign war.
Though Iran has long been a target of Republican hard-liners and pro-Israel lobbyists, many in the GOP are likely to oppose any direct action against Tehran that would put American service members at risk.
