US president Donald Trump has moved another aircraft carrier to the Middle East after massing stealth bombers at Chagos Islands, amid fears he may be gearing up to ‘blow up’ Iran.
The US is moving the USS Carl Vinson from Asia, where it normally patrols the South China Sea, to the Persian Gulf, directly south of Iran, to join its sister carrier USS Harry S. Truman.
Threat to Iran
Trump appears to be making good on a threat to attack Iran with a ‘bombing the likes to which they have never seen before’ should its supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, refuse to destroy its nuclear programme and stop supporting proxy wars in the Middle East.
America has already moved six B-2 Spirit stealth bombers to the Chagos Islands, a third of its fleet, with satellite imagery showing them resting at the Diego Garcia military base on the UK-controlled island.
These high-tech planes have the capability of carrying bunker busting bombs across Iran that could destroy its military and nuclear sites.
The B-2 Spirits will likely be supported by a fleet of six Stratotanker in-flight refuelling craft, which were seen at Diego Garcia.
These would give the Spirits the capability to fly to Iran, deliver payloads and fly back to the Chagos Islands in a roughly 5,000-mile round trip.
Iran Matching Up to US Energy
But Iran is also not playing coward to the challenge, with Khamenei adviser Ali Larijani telling local media: ‘If America or Israel bomb Iran under the nuclear pretext, Iran will be compelled to move toward producing an atomic bomb.’
Last month, the International Atomic Energy Agency reported that Iran had substantially increased its production of nuclear-capable uranium, and had increased its stockpile of near-weapons grade material.
The US is also exerting financial pressureon Iran, with US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent on Wednesday meeting in Washington with 16 global banks and federal law enforcement agencies on U.S. sanctions policy on Iran including efforts to cut its oil exports.
