Click to see full-size image. (The U.S. Central Command)
The United States will move a fighter jet squadron to the Middle East and maintain an aircraft carrier in the region to help defend Israel from possible attacks by Iran and its allies and safeguard American troops, the Pentagon announced on August 2.
In a statement, the Pentagon also said that Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin ordered additional ballistic missile defense-capable cruisers and destroyers to the European and Middle East regions and is taking steps to send more land-based ballistic missile defense weapons there.
Israel is now preparing for a response to the assassinations of Hezbollah’s military chief Fuad Shukr in the Lebanese capital, Beirut, and Hamas’s leader Ismail Haniyeh in the Iranian capital, Tehran earlier this week.
Iranian and Hamas leaders vowed to take revenge against Israel for Haniyeh’s killing during a funeral procession for him in Tehran. Hezbollah’s leader Hassan Nasrallah said that the war against Israel had entered a “new phase” and Israel should expect “rage and revenge.” In addition, the leader of Yemen’s Houthis, Abdul-Malik al-Houthi, vowed that the Israeli escalation will be met with a “military response.”
Israel has claimed responsibility for the strike that killed Shukr, but has not officially commented on the assassination of Haniyeh.
According to recent reports, Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei has ordered a direct strike against Israel and the attack may be carried out jointly with other allies of Tehran, including Hezbollah and the Houthis.
Austin is ordering the USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier strike group to the Middle East to replace the USS Theodore Roosevelt carrier strike group, which is in the Gulf of Oman but scheduled to come home later this summer.
The Pentagon did not however say where the fighter jet squadron was coming from or where it would be based in the Middle East.
The White House in a statement said that President Joe Biden “reaffirmed his commitment to Israel’s security against all threats from Iran, including its proxy terrorist groups Hamas, Hezbollah and the Houthis.”
The announcement of the new deployments by the U.S. came as Israeli Channel 12 TV reported that Jerusalem is finalizing arrangements with allies for a regional coalition to thwart an attack by Iran and its allies.
The report named the U.S., United Kingdom, Gulf states, Egypt and Jordan as ready to help intercept missiles and drones should they be fired, in what the channel said was essentially the same coalition that almost completely thwarted the Iranian attack last April.
All in all, the U.S. appears to be determined to defend Israel, which threatens American troops in the Middle East and could bring the region even closer to an all-out war.
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