NEW DELHI, India, Feb. 19 (ANI) — The United States has deployed major air and naval forces to West Asia, according to reports from entity[“organization”,”The Wall Street Journal”,”us newspaper”] and entity[“organization”,”CNN”,”us news network”] on Thursday, marking the most substantial military buildup in the region since the U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003.
The U.S. military is prepared to launch strikes against entity[“country”,”Iran”,”middle eastern country”] as early as this weekend, though President entity[“politician”,”Donald Trump”,”us president”] has not made a final decision on whether to authorize military action, CNN reported, citing sources familiar with the matter.
The developments come as Iran and entity[“country”,”Russia”,”eurasian country”] announced joint naval drills in the entity[“place”,”Gulf of Oman”,”arabian sea gulf”] aimed at deterring any unilateral action in the region. Iranian Navy spokesman Rear Admiral Hassan Maghsoudloo, quoted by Iran’s Tasnim news agency, said the exercises would be held on Feb. 19 in the Gulf of Oman and the northern Indian Ocean.
Senior U.S. national security officials met Wednesday in the entity[“point_of_interest”,”White House Situation Room”,”washington dc facility”] to discuss the situation involving Iran, according to a person familiar with the meeting. Trump was also briefed by special envoy Steve Witkoff and his son-in-law, Jared Kushner, on indirect talks with Iranian officials held a day earlier in entity[“city”,”Geneva”,”switzerland city”].
The Wall Street Journal reported that the U.S. continues to strengthen its military presence by deploying advanced entity[“organization”,”United States Air Force”,”us military branch”] fighter aircraft, including F-22 and F-35 jets. A second aircraft carrier and command aircraft are also en route to the region.
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said Wednesday that Iran “would be very wise to make a deal” with Trump following indirect talks mediated by entity[“country”,”Oman”,”middle eastern country”], which ended without a major breakthrough. Iran’s foreign minister stated that both sides agreed on a set of guiding principles during the discussions. Trump has repeatedly called on Iran to abandon its nuclear program, including halting uranium enrichment.
In June last year, the United States and entity[“country”,”Israel”,”middle eastern country”] carried out a 12-day military campaign involving strikes on Iranian military and nuclear facilities.
Earlier this year, Trump said a “massive armada” was heading toward Iran and expressed hope that Tehran would return to negotiations and agree to a deal that would include a complete renunciation of nuclear weapons. Iranian officials responded by warning that any attack would threaten U.S. and allied military infrastructure across West Asia.
According to a report by entity[“organization”,”The New York Times”,”us newspaper”], the U.S. military buildup includes dozens of aerial refueling tankers, more than 50 additional fighter jets, and two aircraft carrier strike groups, along with destroyers, cruisers, and submarines.
The aircraft carrier entity[“organization”,”USS Gerald R. Ford”,”us aircraft carrier”] was approaching Gibraltar on Wednesday to join the aircraft carrier entity[“organization”,”USS Abraham Lincoln”,”us aircraft carrier”] in the region, the report said.
Over the past month, the U.S. has also deployed advanced air defense systems across West Asia, including Patriot missile defense systems and Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD), designed to intercept Iranian ballistic missiles. (ANI)
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