A US military aircraft carrier strike group and other assets will arrive in the Middle Eastregion in the coming days, two US officials said on Thursday, even as US President Donald Trump voices hopes of avoiding new military action against Iran.
US warships, including the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln, several destroyers, and fighter aircraft, started moving from the Asia-Pacific last week as tensions between Iran and the United States soared following a severe crackdown on protests across Iran in recent months.
One official said additional air defense systems were also being considered for the Middle East. The United States often increases US troop levels in the Middle East during periods of heightened regional tensions, something experts note can be entirely defensive in nature.
However, the US military staged a major buildup last summer ahead of its June strikes against Iran's nuclear program, and later boasted about how it kept its intention to strike a secret.
Trump had repeatedly threatened to intervene against Iran over the recent killings of protesters there, but protests dwindled last week, and Trump's rhetoric regarding Iran has eased. He has turned his gaze to other geopolitical issues, including his pursuit of Greenland.
On Wednesday, Trump said he hoped there would not be further US military action in Iran, but said the United States would act if Tehran resumed its nuclear program.
"They can't do the nuclear," Trump told CNBC in an interview in Davos, Switzerland, noting major US air strikes on Iran's nuclear facilities in June 2025. "If they do it, it's going to happen again."
It is now at least seven months since the UN nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency, last verified Iran's stock of highly enriched uranium. Its own guidance is that it should be done monthly.
ran must file a report to the IAEA on what happened to those sites that were struck by the United States and nuclear material thought to be there, including an estimated 440.9 kg of uranium enriched to up to 60% purity, close to the roughly 90% weapons-grade level. That is enough material, if enriched further, for 10 nuclear bombs, according to an IAEA yardstick.
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