Only a day after warning Iran to make a deal, the US appears to be sending refuelling planes to key points within the region.
Dozens of planes are headed towards the Middle East as tensions between Iran and the US reach a breaking point after nuclear talks.
It comes as one Trump adviser told Axios: ‘The boss is getting fed up. Some people around him warn him against going to war with Iran, but I believe there’s 90% likelihood we see kinetic motion in the following few weeks.’
Sources have suggested that any conflict would likely be a joint operation with Israel.
Security expert Will Geddes told Metro the influx of military equipment to the region is a show of force from Donald Trump, telling the Ayatollah to comply and step down.
He explained: ‘The large challenge is that the Ayatollah shouldn’t be going to face down. Khamenei has openly taunted Trump, saying he’ll send U.S. warships to the underside of the ocean if he tries anything.
‘If there’s any motion—and though Donald Trump hasn’t given an attack order yet—we’re going to see a monumental display of U.S. military strength against Iran.’
What would a US war with Iran appear like?
Last month, the US moved the usAbraham Lincoln and a number of other guided missile destroyers into the region, which may be used to launch attacks from the ocean.
As fears of a US attack in Iran mount, Dr Bamo Nouri, a professor in International Relations on the University of West London, told Metro that a conflict launched by the US can be easy to begin – but hard to manage.
‘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 fairly than halting it, and pulling the US into a chronic 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 fairly than an imminent decision for all-out war.’
Geddes observed: ‘Without delay, the US will probably be mapping the country to make sure strikes hit regime assets fairly than civilians – nuclear development capabilities and military assets, ultimately pushing to disable the regime’s military power and pressure them to depart.
‘I don’t think we’ll see a ‘President Maduro’ situation here, but as with other dictators previously—like Bashar al-Assad in Syria—we may even see the Ayatollah being told: ‘Take your money and disappear,’ he explained.
The US won’t make any moves until all assets within the region are in place – but something to look at is the warnings issued to the maritime industry.
Iran has been conducting military drills within the Strait of Hormuz, an important shipping lane within the Red Sea.
Any military motion can be preceded by an advisory to the maritime industry, essentially telling them to ‘hold tight’, Geddes said.
He added: ‘Ultimately, Iran is bringing it on themselves. In any negotiation—whether it’s international diplomacy or a kidnapping—there must be a concession on each side.’
Today, 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, experts say.
Images also show that Iran has buried tunnel entrances at a nuclear site bombed by the U.S. during Israel’s 12-day war with Iran last yr, fortified tunnel entrances near one other, and has repaired missile bases struck within the conflict.
They provide a glimpse of Iranian activities at among the sites on the centre of tensions with Israel and the U.S., as Washington seeks to barter a take care of Tehran on its nuclear programme while threatening military motion if talks fail.
Get in contact with our news team by emailing us at webnews@metro.co.uk.
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