In his most aggressive military maneuvers since returning to the White House, President Donald Trump said Thursday that a “massive fleet” of U.S. warships is now steaming toward the Middle East. Meeting with reporters on Air Force One en route home from the World Economic Forum in Davos, Trump reiterated his warnings to the Iranian leadership: the United States is “locked and loaded” if Tehran crosses his established “red lines.”
The "Armada" Moves In
The deployment is centered on the USS Abraham Lincoln carrier strike group that had been rerouted out of the Asia-Pacific. With guided-missile destroyers and advanced F-35C fighter jets, the fleet on the way to the Persian Gulf is expected to get there soon.
“We already have a ton of ships going that way, just in case,” Trump said. “We have an armada. A huge fleet is heading that way, and maybe we won’t have to use it. We’ll see.”
Warnings to the Supreme Leader
The escalating rhetoric has come after a period of intense internal unrest in Iran. Trump has been warning Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei repeatedly against the violent crackdown on domestic protesters, which human rights groups say has killed more than 12,000 people since December.
Trump issued a direct warning to the clerical leadership: Any further executions or the restart of the Iranian nuclear program will lead to a military response that would make prior strikes “look like peanuts.” On Tuesday, the President took it even further, decrying that with any attempt made on American lives or assets the U.S. would "wipe them off the face of this Earth."
Iran’s “Finger on the Trigger”
Tehran has sounded its own fiery rhetoric in response. Major General Mohammad Pakpour, a commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), announced on Thursday that Iranian forces have their “fingers on the trigger,” and are prepared to protect the Supreme Leader at all costs.
“Trump realizes that if someone extends a hand of attack to our leader we will not just sever that hand, but we will also set fire to their world,” said General Abolfazl Shekarchi, a spokesman for the Iranian armed forces.
The Strategy of "Strategic Submission"
For the geopolitical expert Trump's aim is not necessarily a full-scale war but "strategic submission." And in blurring the lines between internal oppression and external responsibility, the administration is pressing Tehran into accepting permanent limitations on what it can produce on nuclear weapons and control in the region.
The U.S. fleet is entering the region and with its own bated breath the world waits. Both sides have pledged in public to leave the door open to “fair negotiations,” but the prospect of a major military armada has created a small, vulnerable margin of error.
