Acting Pentagon chief Christopher Miller said he had ordered a halt to the planned redeployment of the aircraft carrier
The US Navy’s nuclear-powered aircraft carrier Nimitz, which has been providing security for the withdrawal of US troops from Somalia, will remain in the Middle East amid threats to Washington from Tehran. This was said in a statement released on Sunday by acting Pentagon chief Christopher Miller.
“Due to the recent threats made by Iran’s leadership to President [Donald] Trump and other US government officials, I have ordered the planned redeployment of the aircraft carrier Nimitz to be suspended. It will now remain on combat duty in the Central Command area of responsibility [which includes the Middle East]”, – Miller said.
“No one should doubt the resolve of the United States,” he added.
On Thursday, Miller ordered the Nimitz to return to its base in the United States. Prior to that, the aircraft carrier was part of a U.S. Navy detachment off the coast of Somalia. Its mission was to provide security for the withdrawal of US servicemen from the republic. The Pentagon is conducting the withdrawal of almost all US troops from Somalia on the orders of current US President Donald Trump.
Earlier, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif had expressed the view that the US was seeking a pretext to start a war with Iran. He also claimed that intelligence from Iraq showed that “Israeli agents provocateurs are planning attacks against the Americans, putting outgoing Trump in a stalemate with a false pretext for war”. He warned that “any fireworks” would have unfortunate consequences.
For his part, Iran’s judiciary chief Ebrahim Raisi said Tehran considered Trump the “number one” accused in the murder of General Qassem Suleimani, commander of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps’ (IRGC, Iran’s elite military units) Al-Quds Special Operations Force. He noted that Trump “can in no way be considered free from punishment for this”. Suleimani was killed on the night of 3 January 2020 in a US missile strike near Baghdad airport. Tehran responded with a missile strike on the night of 8 January against two sites in Iraq used by the US military – the Ain al-Asad base and the airport in the city of Erbil. The Iranian leadership has repeatedly stated that it will definitely retaliate