A second U.S. aircraft carrier headed to the Middle East after President Donald Trump threatened to bomb Iran.
Mike Waltz takes ‘full responsibility’ for leaked Houthis attack
National Security Adviser Mike Waltz inadvertently invited a reporter into a Signal chat discussing a military strike against Houthis in Yemen.
The U.S. is increasing its military presence in the Middle East as a war of words between Iran and President Donald Trump over Iran’s nuclear ambitions sent tensions spiraling in recent days.
The Pentagon extended the deployment of the USS Harry S. Truman aircraft carrier strike group and ordered a second flotilla to the Middle East, Pentagon Spokesman Sean Parnell confirmed Tuesday. It also sent additional warplanes to the region, including F-35 fighters and B-2 stealth bombers, according to a U.S. official.
The posture shift came as Trump threatened to bomb Iran if the country does not strike a deal over its nuclear weapons capabilities.
“If they don’t make a deal, there will be bombing,” he told NBC in a phone interview on Sunday.
Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei hit back on Monday that, while Iran believes a U.S. strike is unlikely, “if they commit any mischief they will surely receive a strong reciprocal blow.”
Michael Knights, a senior fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy specializing in Iran and its proxy militias, said it was unclear whether the second aircraft carrier’s purpose was related to Iran’s potential nuclear ambitions or the Trump administration’s ongoing attacks on the Houthis.
“One option is that…we’re signaling we don’t want Iran or the Houthis to broaden the fight at all,” he said. “We put more carriers in place, and we have the B-2 to say, ‘Iran, if you get involved in this, we can come for you too.'”
During his first term in office, Trump withdrew from the Iran nuclear deal brokered by former President Obama that saw Iran agree to restrictions on nuclear weapons development in exchange for waiving some sanctions.
Last month, he reversed his position, telling Iran in a letter that they must come back to the table on a deal.
“There are two ways Iran can be handled: militarily, or you make a deal,” Trump said on Fox News.
‘Inevitable’ clash?
Khamenei accused the U.S. of “bullying,” saying Iran will “definitely not accept their expectations.”
On Wednesday, French President Emmanuel Macron held a rare meeting to assess the risks of war between the U.S. and Iran with other European leaders. A military clash between the two seemed “almost inevitable,” French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot said after the meeting.
Diplomatic resolution ‘very much alive’
Scott Roecker, vice president of the Nuclear Threat Initiative, said he was “optimistic” both sides still have reasons to come to the negotiating table.
“The diplomatic off-ramp is very much alive,” said Roecker, who led nuclear threat reduction efforts for the National Security Council during Obama’s second term and for part of the first Trump administration.
He added that Iranian officials historically have sought nuclear negotiations when their regional power wanes; Iran’s proxy forces and allies throughout the region have faced repeated setbacks and even complete destruction since Hamas attacked Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, sparking a broader war.
Roecker argued Iran may not really want to get a nuclear weapon, but developing one could backstop their negotiating position.
“They see advantages in that, for negotiations, for leverage, but I’m not sure they really want all the responsibilities that come along with nuclear weapons,” he said.
The expert also said the clock is ticking to reach a diplomatic solution. The 2015 UN Security Council resolution that accompanied the Obama-era Iran nuclear deal allows countries still in the accord − France, Germany, the United Kingdom, Russia or China − to reimpose crippling economic sanctions on Iran if they believe the Islamic Republic has broken the deal.
But the sanctions “snapback” option, as it is known in diplomatic circles, will expire in October 2025.
Trump continues attacks on Houthis, Iran’s regional allies
Meanwhile, Trump’s continued attacks on Iran’s regional allies also continue to chafe at the U.S.-Iran relationship.
The Trump administration has given every signal it will keep up a bombing campaign it kickstarted last month against the Houthis, a Yemeni militant group backed by Iran. As of Monday, the U.S. has launched at least 27 airstrikes on Houthi targets in western Yemen, according to the Institute for the Study of War.
Those plans came into greater detail last week after messages from Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth detailing the exact times and weapons used of the first strikes on March 15 were published by Jeffrey Goldberg, a journalist accidentally added to a chat made up of top Trump officials on encrypted messaging app Signal.
According to Hegseth’s messages – which he is now under fire for sending over a non-official platform – the U.S. used F/A-18 planes, MQ-9 Reaper drones and Tomahawk missiles, likely launched from a Navy ship, in the attacks that day.
Trump has said attacks on the Houthis won’t end until they stop launching rockets at ships traversing the Red Sea.
“Our attacks will continue until they are no longer a threat to Freedom of Navigation,” he said in a Truth Social post on Monday. “The choice for the Houthis is clear: Stop shooting at U.S. ships, and we will stop shooting at you.”
“Otherwise, we have only just begun, and the real pain is yet to come, for both the Houthis and their sponsors in Iran.”
Retaliatory strikes on the Houthis are not new – former President Joe Biden launched hundreds during his tenure. The Trump administration has painted the latest wave of attacks as more directed and forceful than those launched by Biden.
Joseph Votel, a retired four-star Army general and former commander of U.S. Central Command, called the new wave of strikes a “standard counterterrorism approach” in a Middle East Institute news briefing. The recent strikes are also more geographically dispersed and of greater intensity, he said.
Biden’s approach, by contrast, was more “defensive-oriented,” he said.
Lt. Gen. Alexus Grynkewich, director of operations at the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said at a March 17 news briefing that the first strikes targeted “command and control centers,” as well as “terrorist training sites, unmanned aerial vehicle infrastructure, weapons manufacturing capabilities, and weapons storage facilities.”
The Houthis have said their own attacks are retaliation for Israel’s siege of Gaza. They paused their attacks during the 2-month ceasefire struck by Israel and Hamas in mid-January, but they started up again in mid-March after Israel resumed its attacks on Gaza.