US could have three carriers in Middle East ‘soon’
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US President Donald Trump says in a Time magazine interview that it is “possible” he will order a ramping up of bombing in Iran after the November mid-term elections.
When pressed by Time journalists, Trump continued: “I can’t tell you that because look, you know, you’re asking, where are you going to bomb?”.
He said in the interview, conducted on Monday, that he rejected the latest ceasefire proposal from Iran because “things that I wouldn’t have approved a year ago I wouldn’t have today”.
Trump cited as an example an offer from Iran to “open up the Strait” of Hormuz but said the overall proposal was “not good enough”.
A group of ships that together carry more than 7000 sailors and 2000 Marines are heading to the Middle East, a United States official said on Thursday.
That includes the recently deployed USS Theodore Roosevelt carrier strike group and the USS Makin Island amphibious readiness group.
It could mean three carriers are in the region as early as the end of October, according to the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive military operations.
That would be an unusually high US naval presence of more than 20,000 sailors and Marines and hundreds of aircraft.
It comes as the war with Iran stretches past seven months.
The US navy previously had three carriers in the Middle East in April – the first time since 2003.
The USS George HW Bush and the USS George Washington are there now, along with the USS Boxer amphibious readiness group.
The Pacific-based Washington had moved to the Middle East to relieve the long-deployed USS Abraham Lincoln.
AP