By Spy Uganda Correspondent
The United States has deployed at least 12 warships to the Middle East, a defence official revealed amidst rising tension in the region following the Israeli assassination of senior officials in Hamas and Hezbollah.
According to sources, the vessels included the aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt and its accompanying warships, and the Wasp Amphibious Ready Group, a three-ship amphibious task force that includes more than 4,000 Marines and sailors, the official told The Washington Post, speaking on the condition of anonymity.
The official added that the rising tension in the Middle East has not prompted the Pentagon to announce any additional deployments, but the US Navy has assembled at least a dozen warships nearby.
The USS Theodore Roosevelt was in the Persian Gulf on Wednesday with six U.S. destroyers. In the eastern Mediterranean were the three amphibious ships and two destroyers, according to the Washington Post.
No U.S. warships were in the Red Sea, where the U.S. military has tangled in recent days with the Houthis group in Yemen that has launched numerous attacks against commercial and military ships over the past several months.
Western diplomats are holding urgent discussions amid attempts to prevent full-blown war in the Middle East, the Financial Times reported.
Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei has reportedly ordered a direct strike on Israel for the assassination of Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh, while the Lebanese resistance group Hezbollah has vowed revenge for the assassination of its commander Fuad Shukr.
“Everyone since last night is putting pressure on Tehran to not respond and to contain this,” a Western diplomat revealed.
The report said that Enrique Mora, one of the EU’s most senior diplomats, held talks in Tehran yesterday.
At the same time, the White House’s top official on the Middle East, Brett McGurk, was in Saudi Arabia on a pre-planned trip for talks, the British newspaper said.
