The United States Armed Forces continue to reinforce their military presence in the Middle East amid the possibility that US President Donald Trump may order an attack against Iran.
Aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln and its strike teams have reached the Strait of Malacca, located between Malaysia and Indonesia. They are expected to enter the US Central Command’s (CENTCOM) area of responsibility in five to seven days. Accompanying the carrier are two destroyers: the USS Spruance and the USS Michael Murphy.
According to reports, an additional 12 F-15 fighter jets have arrived in Jordan over the past 24 hours.
More fighter aircraft are believed to be heading to the region, set to arrive in the near future, while cargo planes have landed at the US military base in Diego Garcia.
US officials told The Jerusalem Post that “all options are now on the table.” The officials added that the goal is to build a significant force in the Middle East that would provide Trump with a broad range of options should he decide to strike Iran.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also convened several ministers in the senior defense echelon on Sunday to discuss recent developments in the region. Israeli officials believe that a “US strike on Iran is still an option.”
Trump had reportedly been persuaded on Wednesday to cancel an attack on Iran, partially due to the US’s limited operational ability in the region, as many American assets had been redeployed to the Caribbean and East Asia after the 12-day war in June.
Several Arab states had also reportedly informed the US that they would not allow American aircraft to take off from their territory in order to strike Iran.
Also on Wednesday, Netanyahu held a phone call with Trump, where he reportedly said that Israel was not prepared to defend itself in the event of an Iranian response to an American strike, given that the US military lacked sufficient forces in the region to assist as it had done in the past.
Former US ambassador to Israel and deputy assistant secretary of defense for the Middle East, Dan Shapiro, suggested that Trump, driven by a desire to fulfill rhetorical promises to the Iranian people, may be seeking a “dramatic” military exit ramp.
“Trump called for the Iranian people to go to the streets, promising he would be with them,” Shapiro told the Post. “But when the regime killed thousands, no price was paid because the US lacked the necessary forces in the region at the time.”
According to Shapiro, that dynamic is now changing. As US forces move back into the region, America’s military option is being made available. Shapiro said that Trump’s preferred “one-and-done” dramatic military style strike could lead him to specifically target Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
“What would be big and dramatic and allow him to say he fulfilled his promise? It would be to eliminate the supreme leader,” Shapiro said.
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian responded in a post on X/Twitter, warning that a strike against Khamenei would amount to a full-scale war with Iran.
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