The US suddenly pulled the USS Nimitz – the Middle East’s only aircraft carrier – from the region ahead of the one-year anniversary of the assassination of General Qassem Soleimani on Sunday, despite weeks of mounting tensions with Iran.
The move was reportedly a “de-escalation signal” aimed at avoiding a crisis with less than three weeks to go into President Trump’s tenure.
The change came when Iranian leaders threatened to retaliate against President Trump and military leaders for Soleimani’s death. “Don’t assume that someone, like the President of America, who appeared as a murderer or ordered murder, can be immune from the execution of justice. Never, ”said the head of the Iranian judiciary, Ebrahim Raisi, at a rally to commemorate the anniversary.
The Nimitz’s departure also comes days after the US flew strategic bombers over Iran as a show of violence, and a week after Trump warned the Iranian government that it would be held responsible for attacks on Americans in Iraq.
Acting Defense Secretary Christopher Miller ordered the USS Nimitz, operating just off the coast of Somalia, to return to its home port of Washington state in the midst of a 10-month deployment beginning in September. According to The New York Times, the Pentagon’s decision was made based on the objections of top military advisers.
US intelligence officials have seen increasing evidence that an Iranian attack on US forces is “imminent,” NBC News reported. Iran has denied planning an attack and even accused its nemesis Israel of planning to assassinate US military personnel in a line-up designed to provoke Trump to respond against Tehran.
The US still has several other naval vessels in the region.
Separately, Iran said it was ramping up its uranium enrichment to levels not allowed by the 2015 nuclear deal, which pulled Trump from the US in 2017, but President-elect Biden wants to rejoin.