US moves two major warships to Middle East as Trump weighs Iran strike
Israeli officials prepared for a possible American attack while the USS Theodore Roosevelt and USS Makin Island departed Asia for the region.
By Gavin Wilson ·
Middle East tensions rose this week as the United States positioned additional naval assets near Iran and President Donald Trump discussed options for further military action. The developments came as diplomatic efforts continued to stall.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met with senior security officials on Friday afternoon to review the situation. Two sources familiar with the meeting said the team prepared for the possibility that Trump might authorize a new strike on Iran, although no final order was issued at that time.
The US military began moving assets into the region over the weekend. The aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt and its strike group left Singapore after a brief stop. The fleet is now heading toward the US Central Command area of responsibility, with arrival expected within several days. The amphibious assault ship USS Makin Island also departed Japan and is en route to the same area.
Trump discussed the potential for new strikes in a recent interview with CNN. He stated that the US military could destroy 38 Iranian bridges in one hour. He expressed a preference for avoiding damage to infrastructure, noting that rebuilding such structures could take Tehran up to a decade. He described bridges as the hardest structures to build and said he did not like tearing them down.
Diplomatic sources indicated that Trump gave Vice President JD Vance and other senior officials a limited timeframe of a few days to secure an agreement between Washington and Tehran. In the CNN interview, Trump said the likelihood of returning to war was highly unlikely if meaningful progress was made. He emphasized that the decision would depend on whether both sides signed a very strong agreement.
Trump announced on Sunday evening that the Iron Gate task force was operating at full capacity within Iran. He claimed that the combination of the task force and the naval blockade meant almost nothing was entering or leaving the country. He referred to the naval blockade as the largest in history, suggesting the pressure was severely restricting Iranian movement.
The movement of the two major ships signals a buildup of American naval power near Iranian waters. The US military continued these reinforcement efforts while negotiations proceeded. Israeli security leadership remained on alert throughout the weekend as the situation evolved.
