USS Theodore Roosevelt carrier enters the Arabian Sea: what comes next

The US aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt has entered the Arabian Sea. The news comes as US President Donald Trump, according to the German outlet Bild, is under growing pressure over possible new strikes on Iran.

Trump has said the war against Iran is “effectively over” from a military standpoint, that Iran has been “decapitated,” and that new large-scale strikes are not needed right now. At the same time, the US remains “ready and on alert” and can strike again if necessary. A few days later he spoke even more harshly about Tehran: “We don’t need a deal with Iran. Those times are long gone.” According to him, the US holds Iranian money — “hundreds of billions of dollars” — and, as Trump added, “we have their strait too!”, meaning the Strait of Hormuz.

Vance sidelined on Iran

According to Bild, this fits with the fact that on Thursday Trump stripped Vice President JD Vance of any influence over decisions on Iran. Vance called the war against Iran’s ayatollahs the main reason for the Republicans’ defeat in the midterm elections and, according to media reports, repeatedly criticized the strikes in closed meetings. He is now supposed to focus on fighting corruption and crime. “This means that in the event of a new war, Vance would put fewer obstacles in Trump’s way,” Bild writes.

On Friday in Washington, Roman Gofman, head of Israel’s intelligence agency Mossad, met with CIA Director John Ratcliffe. According to Axios, the main topic was resuming strikes on Iran, which Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is pushing for.

More than 20,000 troops in the region

The Associated Press reported a month ago on a third carrier heading to the Middle East. According to AP, the group of ships heading to the region carries more than 7,000 sailors and 2,000 Marines. It includes the Theodore Roosevelt carrier strike group as well as the amphibious ships John P. Murtha and Anchorage.

Counting the forces already there, such a deployment would mean an unusually high concentration of American naval power: more than 20,000 sailors and Marines and hundreds of aircraft. The carriers George H.W. Bush and George Washington are already in the region. The latter replaced the Abraham Lincoln in August, whose crew spent more than 260 days at sea in a row.

Around Prague, based on reporting by novinky.cz