American warships deploying to Middle East is hardly news. But recently, navy forces scaled up their defense preparedness in the region, deploying an aircraft carrier strike group and a bomber task force to the Middle East in response to intelligence on Iran and Iranian proxies planning an attack on US.
In view of US-Iranian rising tensions, the White House made the surprise announcement that the USS Abraham Lincoln and a bomber task force were being deployed in response to unspecified "troubling and escalatory indications and warnings."
For the US and Iran, Syria may turn into a thumbnail for their regional conflict. National Security Advisor of the United States John Bolton had clearly stated that US military presence in Syria is aimed at snipping Iranian influence, and that he was successful in changing US President Donald Trump’s mind on a “total and swift pullout” from the embattled country.
Bolton, in the capacity of his post, has dished out some of the harshest warnings against the clerical regime in Tehran, saying that the US response to any attack on American interests in the region, or those of its allies, will be unrelenting.
The caveat was sent out for both Iran’s Revolutionary Guards-- which Washington recently designated as a terrorist organization --- and affiliated proxies.
US Ratchets up Pressure on Iran by:
- Withdrawing from the nuclear agreement
- Issuing a 12-point list of demands in terms of changing Iran’s “malign behavior” in the Middle East.
- Sanctioning Iranian oil exports and cancelling waivers granted to eight countries, including China, India and Turkey.
- Designating the Revolutionary Guards as a terrorist organization.
- Heavily sanctioning Iranian networks related to the regime’s influence in the Middle East.
US Military Presence in the Middle East:
- US and allies maintain an approximate 2,500 American, French and British troops alongside fixed and mobile military bases in Syria, located both east of the Euphrates River and in the country’s north-east.
- 5,200 soldiers and a special operations unit in Iraq.
- 14,000 soldiers in Afghanistan.
- Land and maritime military bases in the Gulf, Turkey and the Mediterranean.
Many unanswered questions remain on what had pushed Washington to take the significant move of deploying the USS Abraham Lincoln to the region. But the move undoubtedly steps up pressure on Iran, as the US adopts a hawkish policy against Tehran’s regional behavior.
