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The United States military announced on Thursday that a third aircraft carrier has arrived in the Middle East, the most the U.S. has sent to the region since the Iraq War.
The U.S.S. George H.W. Bush carries over 80 aircraft and has more than 5,500 sailors and air crew on board. Officials would not elaborate on plans for the Bush, but analysts suggested its arrival to the area could mean an escalation in the ongoing war with Iran — especially if negotiations between Washington and Tehran continue to sour.
“The message is that [President Donald] Trump may apply more pain if the peace talks don’t advance in the way Trump wants,” retired U.S. Navy Captain Carl Schuster said.
The arrival of the Bush means that three aircraft carriers are in the region for the first time in more than two decades.
As speculation grows about the administration’s next moves in Iran, Trump snapped at a reporter on Thursday for daring to ask how long he was willing to allow the unsanctioned war to continue.
“Don’t rush me,” Trump said, interrupting the reporter’s question. He went on:
We were in Vietnam for 18 years, we were in Iraq for many, many years, we were four and a half, almost five years, in World War II, and we were in the Korean War for seven years. I’ve been doing this for six weeks.
“Their military is totally defeated,” Trump said in his very next sentence.
The president’s claim is contradicted by a recent assessment by his own Defense Department. According to the Pentagon’s intelligence analysts, Iran still has thousands of missiles and one-way attack drones, and remains a “potent regional power.”
Trump has made similar claims on his Truth Social website. Those posts, it turns out, may be hampering the dealmaking process between Iran and the U.S.
According to a report from CNN, there was “rising optimism” that a peace deal could be achieved ahead of when a delegation of negotiators, led by Vice President JD Vance, planned to meet with Iranian counterparts to discuss ending the war. But after Trump falsely claimed on social media that he had convinced Iran to hand over its supplies of enriched uranium, the mood shifted.
“The Iranians didn’t appreciate POTUS negotiating through social media and making it appear as if they had signed off on issues they hadn’t yet agreed to, and ones that aren’t popular with their people back home,” a source familiar with the situation told CNN.
Whereas negotiations were supposedly heading in a positive direction before, sources speaking to the network now say that the situation is “fluid.”
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