As USS Abraham Lincoln carrier strike group keeps moving towards Persian sea, the Pentagon has augmented the fleet with USS Arlington, which transports marines, amphibious vehicles, and rotary aircraft, as well as the Patriot missiles.
The deployment – as per the Washington, is in response to the ‘increasing Iranian’ threat to the US’ interests in region. The Pentagon in a statement on Friday stated that Washington was “ready to defend US forces and interests in the region”, adding that the US did not seek conflict with Iran. However no specifics or threats faced by US forces in the region were specified. At present over five thousand American troops are deployed in neighbouring Iraq.
While Tehran has called the allegation ‘nonsense’ and part of “psychological warfare” to subdue the Shia state.
As last exceptions to US sanctions were sealed off by Trump administration, Tehran is feeling full weight of a US’ financial embargo that has all but frozen all its international trade. The local currency continues to fall as the faces another round of crippling policies from White House.
With the nuclear deal all but dead, the carrier group may be deployed to physically isolate the country and pressure it into singing off into a new deal. This new deal need to include non-interference commitments from Tehran on all regional conflicts, including immediate seizure of all Iranian activities in Syria, Iraq, Lebanon, Palestine and Yemen.
We believe, the republican administration in US has oversimplified its objective to a simple boss fight in Iran. The present actions simply shows lack of knowledge of history and culture of the region. At present Iran is fighting for a more inclusive version of Islam against the hardline preaching by Saudi clerics. In effect it has become a pariah of all minorities in the region against the Wahabi sunni movements. Its forces are also looked upon as stabilising forces in war torn Yemen and Syria. Any direct US intervention may have repercussions that will be sorted out by western capitals for decades to come.
