Major naval maneuvers underway middle East. The exclusive comes from ABC News, which first revealed the withdrawal of the aircraft carrier USS Gerald R. Ford from the eastern Mediterranean within “the next few days.” A few hours later, the Iranian agency Tasnim announced that Tehran had sent the destroyer Alborz to the Red Sea. The parallel movements of the two enemy powers and the threat from Houthis to commercial traffic show that the situation in the region is still extremely unstable almost three months after the Hamas attacks on Israel.
It was US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin who decided in October to deploy the Ford, the world's newest and largest aircraft carrier, along with five other warships US Navy. The aim is to prevent an escalation of the crisis due to the entry of Iran and Hezbollah, its ally in Lebanon, into a direct conflict with the Jewish state, which is already involved in the ground operation against the Islamists in the Gaza Strip.
However, the anonymous sources who confirmed the Ford's return to Norfolk, Virginia, to ABC News stressed that despite the Pentagon's determinations, the United States will “maintain significant military capacity and flexibility in the region, including the additional deployment of cruisers.” . and destroyers”. In fact, the Ford will be replaced by the amphibious assault units USS Bataan, USS Mesa Verde and USS Carter Hall. In addition, a second aircraft carrier, the USS Dwight Eisenhower, will remain in the Gulf of Aden near Yemen to support the initiatives to counter the Houthis, who have forced most shipping companies to reroute traffic to and from Aden in recent weeks Suez Passage.
On Sunday, helicopters took off from the Einsehower and the USS Gravely and, alerted by a distress call from the container ship Maersk Hangzhou, engaged in combat with the Houthis, sinking three of their four boats. According to the New York Times and the Times of London, the aggressive US response to the growing number of attacks by Yemeni militiamen, more than twenty, could be the precursor to a broader plan aimed at targeting missile and drone bases in Yemen.
Although the White House has not yet given the green light for tougher measures, this is also to avoid favoritism for the Houthis' biggest allyIranand failing to end the fragile ceasefire between Saudi Arabia and Yemen. But Tehran, which hosted the rebel group's spokesman and chief negotiator Mohammad Abdulsalam yesterday, responded to the American military maneuvers in kind by sending the destroyer Alborz into the Red Sea. In recent hours, the ship crossed the Strait of Bab-el-Mandeb and entered the section of the sea where Houthi activity against merchant ships was reported. Now the possibility of American military units and those of the Ayatollah regime clashing is increasing dramatically.