Against the backdrop of the war between Israel and Hamas, the major powers are moving their naval figures. It appears to be confirmed that the American aircraft carrier Gerald Ford, which cruised off the Lebanese coast for a month to deter Hezbollah and its ally Iran, is heading towards Italy again. For the last few hours it has been in the Ionian Sea, on the way to the Adriatic. This was revealed by the Itamilradar surveillance head, which showed the flight tracks of two Grumman C-2A transport aircraft that took off from a point east of Sicily and flew to the American base in Sigonella. Since they could not take off from “nowhere” and were neither helicopters nor seaplanes and were only used by the US Navy, the C-2As could only take off from the deck of the Ford aircraft carrier.
Even if it has moved away from the crisis area, the Ford can return there within 36-48 hours thanks to a speed of 30 knots (56 km/h). The other US aircraft carrier sent to the Mediterranean a month ago, the Eisenhower, transited the Red Sea via the Suez Canal on November 4th and, after leaving the Strait of Bab el Mandeb and ascending into the Arabian Sea, thence located November 16 off Oman, just outside the Strait of Hormuz, entrance to the Persian Gulf.
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So Eisenhower is just a stone’s throw from Iran as a warning to the Ayatollahs. Russia is not standing aside. The Russian frigate Admiral Grigorovich, which entered the Mediterranean from the Strait of Gibraltar on November 11th, docked in Algiers from November 12th to 14th for a courtesy visit, since Algeria, from which Italy also buys a lot of gas, is an ally of Algeria is Moscow. It then sailed east and is currently reaching the Russian base in Tartus, Syria. In doing so, the Russians are reaffirming their support for Damascus, whose territory is frequently bombed by the Israeli Air Force because it hosts Hezbollah and Iranian Pasdaran bases.
Meanwhile, Turkish President Recep Erdogan announces Ankara’s goals in the Gaza Strip with the Trojan horse of reconstruction: “After a ceasefire, we will rebuild infrastructure, schools, hospitals.” This puts Turkey in competition with Iran, which also worries Egypt. In the increasingly hybrid dimension of the conflict, the Israeli hacker group Red Evils has claimed responsibility for a cyberattack registered overnight in Iran. We read this on the Red Evils’ X profile (formerly Twitter). According to the Net Block portal, which monitors Internet traffic, the parameters show a short interruption in Internet connectivity in Iran, with a decrease of around 57 percent compared to normal levels before the situation recovers. On the Lebanese front, Hezbollah fired 25 rockets at Israel and shot down a Jewish Hermes spy drone. Israeli aircraft responded by attacking various targets in Lebanon, including the Nabatieh aluminum factory.