US denies carrier group back in Gulf
Tensions extraordinarily high after killing of top Iran nuclear scientist
A US aircraft carrier group has moved back into the Gulf region, but a navy spokeswoman said its return was not triggered by any “threats” after the killing in Iran of a top nuclear scientist.
WASHINGTON: A US aircraft carrier group has moved back into the Gulf region, but a navy spokeswoman said its return was not triggered by any “threats” after the killing in Iran of a top nuclear scientist.
Tensions in the region are extraordinarily high after the assassination Friday of Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, an act still unclaimed but which Iran has blamed on close US ally Israel.
But naval commander Rebecca Rebarich, a spokeswoman for the US 5th Fleet, told AFP the return Wednesday of the carrier group led by the nuclear-powered USS Nimitz was unconnected to any “specific threats.”
“There were no specific threats that triggered the return of the Nimitz Carrier Strike Group,” she said in a statement.
“The return of Nimitz is centered on maintaining CENTCOM’s ability to remain postured and prepared to help preserve regional stability and security,” Rebarich said, referring to the US Central Command.
The Pentagon said earlier that the carrier group would be providing combat support and air cover as the military withdraws thousands of troops from Iraq and Afghanistan by mid-January, under orders from President Donald Trump.
About 2,000 troops will be pulled from Afghanistan and 500 from Iraq, leaving roughly 2,500 in each country.
The flotilla led by the Nimitz – one of the world’s largest warships – had recently joined Australia, India and Japan in scheduled exercises in the Arabian Sea.
The 5th Fleet’s Twitter account showed pictures of the Nimitz’s air wing conducting flight operations there Saturday.
Carrier groups typically include a cruiser, a destroyer squadron and an air wing.
Nimitz-class carriers are more than 1,000 feet long, have a crew of more than 6,000, and carry up to 90 helicopters and fixed-wing aircraft.
The killing of Fakhrizadeh – whom Israel has dubbed the “father” of Iran’s nuclear programme – has once more heightened tensions between the Islamic republic and its foes.
Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei called for the perpetrators to be punished and urged that Fakhrizadeh’s “scientific and technical efforts” be continued.
Iran’s parliament held a closed session Sunday, joined by the intelligence minister, Mahmoud Alavi, to “investigate the assassination,” ISNA news agency reported.
Speaker Mohammad-Bagher Ghalibaf said that any “decisions made will be made public soon”.
The United States slapped sanctions on Fakhrizadeh in 2008 for “activities and transactions that contributed to the development of Iran’s nuclear programme”, and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu once described him as the father of Iran’s nuclear weapons programme.
Iran has repeatedly denied seeking to develop nuclear weapons.
The New York Times said an American official and two other intelligence officials had confirmed Israel was behind the attack, without giving further details.
Israel has declined to comment on the death of Fakhrizadeh.
The assassination comes less than two months before US President-elect Joe Biden is due to take office, after a tumultuous four years of hawkish foreign policy in the Middle East under President Donald Trump.
Rouhani has blamed the killing on “the wicked hands of the global arrogance, with the usurper Zionist regime as the mercenary”.
Iran generally uses the term “global arrogance” to refer to the United States.