WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The commander overseeing U.S. naval forces in the Middle East told Reuters on Thursday that American intelligence showing a threat from Iran will not prevent him from sending an aircraft carrier through the vital Strait of Hormuz, if needed.
Vice Admiral Jim Malloy, commander of the U.S. Navy’s Bahrain-based Fifth Fleet, did not say whether he would send the USS Abraham Lincoln carrier strike group into the strategic waterway off Iran, through which passes a fifth of oil consumed globally.
The group, whose deployment to the Middle East was fast-tracked by President Donald Trump’s administration as a warning to Iran, transited through the Suez Canal into the Red Sea on Thursday and was now under Malloy’s command.
“If I need to bring it inside the strait, I will do so,” Malloy said in an interview by phone. “I’m not restricted in any way, I’m not challenged in any way, to operate her anywhere in the Middle East.”
Iran has dismissed the U.S. contention of a threat as “fake intelligence.” Tensions have risen between Tehran and Washington since the Trump administration withdrew a year ago from a 2015 international nuclear deal with Iran and began ratcheting up sanctions to throttle the Islamic Republic’s economy.
The Pentagon said it expedited the Lincoln’s deployment and sent bombers to the Middle East after U.S. intelligence signaled possible preparations by Tehran to stage attacks against U.S. forces or interests. Malloy said the intelligence was linked “with actual activity that we observed.”
“And that was certainly enough for me ... to say that we saw this as a threat,” he said.
U.S. officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, say one of the pieces of intelligence indicated Iran had moved missiles on boats. One of the officials said the particular missile observed was perhaps capable of launching from a small ship.
The officials also noted growing concerns about the threat from Iran-backed Shi’ite militia in Iraq, which have long avoided any confrontation with U.S. troops under the shared goal of defeating Islamic State, a Sunni militant organization.
Malloy, whose naval forces would support efforts to defend U.S. troops throughout the region, did not enter into details on the U.S. intelligence. But he confirmed that some of the U.S. concerns centered on Iranian missiles.
“It might be a new fielding of technology by Iran,” Malloy said, adding the weaponry “falls under the category of destabilizing and offensive in nature.”
‘NOT IN A WAR-PLAN FOOTING’
The nuclear deal between Iran and six world powers required Tehran to curb its uranium enrichment capacity to head off any pathway to developing a nuclear bomb, in return for the removal of most international sanctions. Iran has always said it pursued a nuclear program for peaceful purposes only.
In the past month, the U.S. designated Iran’s Revolutionary Guard (IRGC) as a terrorist organization and increased sanctions pressure, with an explicit goal of slashing Iran’s oil exports to zero.
Beyond the deployment of the Lincoln, the United States also dispatched B-52 bombers to the Middle East in response and is also weighing the redeployment of Patriot missiles after pulling several out of the region last year, officials said.
Some of Trump’s critics fear the White House is intentionally provoking Iran. Although the military sought the deployments, the announcement itself came in a statement from White House national security adviser John Bolton - a hawk on Iran policy.
Senator Tim Kaine, a Democrat, said he worried “that the Trump administration is leading us toward an unnecessary war.”
Malloy, in his first interview since the IRGC designation, confirmed that U.S. forces were operating at a heightened state of readiness. Still, Malloy stressed that the U.S. military was not seeking or preparing for war with Iran.
“I am not in a war-plan footing and have not been tasked to do so,” Malloy said. “However we are absolutely ready to respond to any aggression against the United States, partners in the region, or our interests.”
Trump also reaffirmed that message on Thursday, saying he did not want conflict.
“We have one of the most powerful ships in the world that is loaded up and we don’t want to do anything,” Trump told reporters.
src:Reuters
THE DRUMS of war are beating once again. An American aircraft-carrier strike group is steaming towards the Persian Gulf, joined by B-52 bombers, after unspecified threats from Iran. John Bolton, the national security adviser, says any attack on America or its allies “will be met with unrelenting force”. In Tehran, meanwhile, President Hassan Rouhani says Iran will no longer abide by the terms of the deal signed with America and other world powers, whereby it agreed to strict limits on its nuclear programme in return for economic relief. Iran now looks poised to resume its slow but steady march towards the bomb—giving American hawks like Mr Bolton further grievances.
Just four years ago America and Iran were on a different path. After Barack Obama offered to extend a hand if Iran’s leaders “unclenched their fist”, the two sides came together, leading to the nuclear deal. That promised to set back the Iranian nuclear programme by more than a decade, a prize in itself, and just possibly to break the cycle of threat and counter-threat that have dogged relations since the Iranian revolution 40 years ago.
src:The Economist
The United States announced harsh new sanctions on Iran as tensions surge between the decades-long rivals.
President Donald Trump issued an executive order on Wednesday to sanction Iran's steel, aluminium, copper and iron sectors, which provide crucial foreign currency earnings for its crippled economy. Trump also threatened further action unless Tehran "fundamentally" changed its behaviour.
The move came after Tehran earlier said it was quitting parts of the 2015 nuclear agreement with world powers, which Washington abandoned in 2018 and ignited the current crisis.
The metals sector is the Islamic Republic's largest non-petroleum-related source of export revenue and represents 10 percent of its export economy, a statement from the White House said.
"Because of our action, the Iranian regime is struggling to fund its campaign of violent terror as its economy heads into an unprecedented depression, government revenue dries up, and inflation spirals out of control," Trump said in a statement.
"We are successfully imposing the most powerful maximum pressure campaign ever witnessed, which today's action will further strengthen."
'Massive step back'
After a meeting with US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo in London, UK Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt said the nuclear deal was "a very important achievement of Western diplomacy", though Russia and China were also part of the negotiations and agreement.
"Iran does not have nuclear weapons and its neighbours have not responded by getting nuclear weapons," Hunt said. "It would be a massive step back for the region if it became nuclearised.
"If Iran keeps to its commitments, we will keep to ours," said the UK foreign secretary. He said there was "a 60-day window" to resolve the current impasse.
Hunt pointed to Iran's faltering economy, which has been hit hard by US sanctions levelled since Trump's withdrawal from the deal, and said there would be "real consequences" if Iran were also to pull out.
"It is in no one's interest, certainly not their interest," Hunt said. "Because the moment they go nuclear, their neighbours will as well."
Pompeo's talks with UK officials - which he described as a "forthright conversation" - came exactly a year after Trump withdrew the US from the landmark multilateral Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), which was designed to curb Iran's nuclear ambitions in exchange for sanctions relief.
He was seeking support from key international partners after Iran announced earlier in the day it would suspend some of its commitments made under the deal, but "the UK is making it clear that it is not changing its position," said Al Jazeera's Jonah Hull, reporting from Westminster.
"It is unsurprising that as the US seeks to ramp up pressure on Iran it would at the same time seek support from its allies. But the UK still supports the deal, and European nations continue to work on financial vehicles and methods to subvert US sanctions - obviously, the United States would like that to stop. They would like Europe to see these latest actions by Iran as evidence of non-compliance [with the deal]."
Cautious support
The US seems prepared for Iran to make the next diplomatic move.
"We have to see what Iran actually do," said Pompeo. "The US will wait to observe that. We've made a decision different to the UK has regarding the JCPOA, but I am confident as we watch Iran's activity that we and our partners will continue to work together."
Hunt did offer cautious but qualified support from the UK for the US position.
"Jeremy Hunt was clear that the UK will act if Iran carries out threats to resume enrichment in 60 days, and warned Iran to think 'long and hard'," added Al Jazeera's Hull.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said he hopes the nuclear deal can be saved after Iran's announcement.
UN spokesman Farhan Haq recalled that Guterres has consistently praised JCPOA as a "major achievement in nuclear non-proliferation and diplomacy and has contributed to regional and international peace and security".
"He strongly hopes that the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action can be preserved," he added.
Across Europe, there was concern over the latest developments threatening the nuclear deal.
France's defence minister, Florence Parly, told BFMTV "nothing would be worse than Iran leaving this deal", but voiced serious apprehension over Tehran's threat to resume a higher enrichment of uranium - saying the question of new sanctions "will be raised" if the deal was not respected.
Germany, which also wants to hold onto the 2015 deal despite the US withdrawal and sanctions, also called for further escalation to be avoided.
"We have learned of Iran's announcement with great concern and we will look at this very closely now," said Foreign Minister Heiko Maas.
US to blame
Russia, meanwhile, blamed the US for Tehran's announcement. Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov met his Iranian counterpart Javad Zarif in Moscow and said the US sanctions - stopping Western businesses operating in Iran and the export of Iranian oil - had undermined the spirit of the deal.
"The US is to blame for the situation and it makes it difficult for both Iran to fulfil its obligations and ... for the general state of the nuclear non-proliferation regime," said Lavrov.
He added the Kremlin and Tehran agreed to continue working with all remaining signatories to the deal to honour its obligations, even if the US will not return to the negotiation table.
Zarif insisted Iran's decision to partially withdraw from certain provisions did not violate the agreement, and said it had been provoked by the US. He also said Iran would uphold its obligations if European signatories to the deal upheld theirs.
src:Al-Jazeera
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