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Donald Trump has built up the most important concentration of US air power within the Middle East since 2003 as rumours of a conflict with Iran reach a boiling point.
The US military could begin strikes on Iran as soon as Saturday, but any potential conflict would likely last far longer, experts have said.
Recent nuclear talks with Iran have yielded little progress, and Trump is losing his patience: essentially telling Iran to make a deal or face the results.
Officials told CBS that Trump still hasn’t selected whether to strike Iran yet, but the huge movement of US military signals that something might unfold in the following few days.
Aircraft have been positioned in Bahrain, the UAE, Jordan and Greece. Naval assets are currently within the Red Sea, Arabian Sea and near the Strait of Hormuz.
The world’s largest aircraft carrier, the USS Gerald R Ford, is currently sailing towards the Middle East, expected to succeed in the Arabian Sea by Sunday.
How could a US attack on Iran unfold?
Security expert Will Geddes told Metro yesterday that the US is probably going mapping out Iran to make sure any potential strikes hit regime assets, slightly than civilians.
‘Nuclear development capabilities and military assets could be the main target, ultimately pushing to disable the regime’s military power and pressure them to depart,’ he said.
Yesterday, satellite images showed that Iran has built a concrete shield over a brand new facility at a sensitive military site and covered it in soil.
They could expect an identical attack to that of the short conflict between Israel and Iran last summer, by which the US worn out many nuclear facilities.
That attack began when B-2 stealth bombers left Missouri and headed towards Iran.
After entering the Middle East, the bombers struck nuclear sites at Fordo and Natanz, Iran, before leaving Iranian airspace and heading back to the US.
This conflict could play out a bit in another way. Experts have said the military will likely use an identical modus operandi by targeting nuclear facilities and areas where government officials congregate.
Dr Bamo Nouri, a professor in International Relations on the University of West London, told Metro that a conflict launched by the US could be easy to start out – but hard to regulate.
‘An outright war would carry enormous and unpredictable costs for each side. For Washington, military strikes could backfire by unifying Iran domestically, accelerating its nuclear programme slightly than halting it, and pulling the US into a protracted regional confrontation,’ he explained.
‘For Iran, direct war with the US would threaten regime stability and risk devastating infrastructure losses.’
Dr Nouri said that structurally, neither Iran nor the US would profit from a full-scale war.
‘What we’re seeing now continues to be pre-negotiation positioning, not even the primary full stage of structured diplomacy, where each side test leverage before any serious political concessions are placed on the table,’ he said.
‘This still looks more like high-risk brinkmanship designed to shape negotiations slightly than an imminent decision for all-out war.’
Get in contact with our news team by emailing us at webnews@metro.co.uk.
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