US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth has ordered more forces to the Middle East, including the USS Carl Vinson carrier strike group and aircraft, the Pentagon said on Tuesday.
The announcement comes as US forces pound Yemen's Houthi rebels with near-daily air strikes in a campaign aimed at ending the threat they pose to civilian shipping and military vessels in the region.
The USS Carl Vinson will arrive in the region after completing exercises in the Indo-Pacific, Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell said in a statement.
The Defence Department is also prolonging the Harry S Truman carrier strike group’s posting in the region, The unusual two-carrier presence repeats a show of force by the Biden administration last year.
“Secretary Hegseth continues to make clear that, should Iran or its proxies threaten American personnel and interests in the region, the United States will take decisive action to defend our people,” Mr Parnell said.
Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said on Monday that any attack by the US or Israel would be met with “a firm retaliatory strike", after President Donald Trump threatened Iran with bombing unless it signs a deal renouncing nuclear weapons.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said last week that there would be no direct negotiations with the US as long as the Trump administration maintains its “military threats.”
