This handout image taken by the European Space Agency (ESA) on Sunday captured by the Copernicus Sentinel-1 satellite shows the US Navy's USS Abraham Lincoln (CVN-72) aircraft carrier cruising in the Arabian Sea about 700 kilometres off the coast of Iran. The USS Abraham Lincoln is one of 12 U.S. ships already in the Middle East. The U.S. president dispatched on Feb. 13 a second aircraft carrier, the USS Gerald R. Ford, to the region to ratchet up military pressure on Iran. AFP PHOTO / ESA-Yonhap

WASHINGTON — The United States is building a major force of naval and air assets in the Middle East, potentially setting the stage for a sustained military campaign against Iran.

President Donald Trump has repeatedly threatened Tehran with military action if ongoing talks do not reach a replacement for the nuclear deal the U.S. president tore up in 2018, during his first term in office.

In addition to the ships and warplanes being deployed in the Middle East, the United States has tens of thousands of troops deployed on bases throughout the region, some of which could be vulnerable to Iranian counter-attacks.

Washington currently has 13 warships in the Middle East: one aircraft carrier — the USS Abraham Lincoln — nine destroyers and three littoral combat ships, with more on the way, according to a U.S. official.

The USS Gerald R. Ford — the world's largest aircraft carrier — is currently in the Atlantic Ocean en route from the Caribbean to the Middle East, after being ordered there by Trump earlier this month. It is accompanied by three destroyers.

It is rare for there to be two U.S. aircraft carriers — which carry dozens of warplanes and are crewed by thousands of sailors — in the Middle East.

The United States had two of the massive warships in the region in June last year when it targeted three Iranian nuclear sites during Israel's 12-day campaign of strikes on Iran.

The United States has also sent a large fleet of aircraft to the Middle East, according to open-source intelligence accounts on X and flight-tracking website Flightradar24.

These include F-22 Raptor stealth fighter jets, F-15 and F-16 warplanes, and the KC-135 aerial refueling aircraft that are needed to sustain their operations.

Source: Korea Times News