US to send third aircraft carrier to Iran: US official to Al Jazeera | US-Israeli war against Iran

The massive US military deployment to the Middle East includes 50,000 troops, F-35s and Marines to pressure Tehran.

The United States is deploying a third American aircraft carrier to the waters around Iran, a US official told Al Jazeera, as the war enters its eighth month and both sides weigh escalation and diplomatic engagement.

The official told Al Jazeera that the USS Theodore Roosevelt aircraft carrier strike group departed its San Diego base for the region on Sunday, followed a day later by the Makin Island Marine Expeditionary Force, carrying more than 2,000 Marines.

By the end of November, the official said, three aircraft carriers and two amphibious landing groups will be positioned around Iran.

The official said the concentration of forces would give President Donald Trump a broader menu of options if he decides to act.

Al Jazeera’s Tanya Noury, reporting from Washington, said the new deployment includes thousands of troops and additional air power, including F-35 fighter jets, adding to the roughly 50,000 U.S. military personnel already stationed in the region.

The goal, Noury ​​said, citing sources within the Pentagon and White House, is to keep military options “on the table” for Trump regardless of how diplomacy plays out, with the Pentagon not considering withdrawing any assets even if a deal with Iran is reached. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said forces were “ready to go” if Trump ordered further strikes.

Trump himself has kept the threat alive publicly. He told Fox News that he believes the United States “is going to win the war” against Iran “very soon,” while suggesting in other remarks that a return to military action “is possible” but that he would prefer not to specify it until after the November midterm elections.

Washington paired the show of force with new economic pressures, sanctioning Iran’s rail and auto conglomerates this week, while the Treasury Department characterized the new measures as an effort to drain what remains of Tehran’s revenue.

Diplomatic track

Along with the military buildup, Iran proposed a seven-day road map, forwarded by Qatar, that would allow it to reopen the Strait of Hormuz and resume nuclear negotiations in exchange for an end to the U.S. naval blockade, sanctions relief and a regional ceasefire covering Lebanon and Yemen.

The project was later rejected by Trump.

U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Mike Waltz told NBC that demands to freeze funds and ease sanctions were non-negotiable, noting that “these are not just U.S. sanctions…these are global sanctions,” and highlighting seven U.N. Security Council resolutions against an Iranian nuclear weapons program.

Meanwhile, Iran’s response has also been two-pronged.

Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi told NBC that Tehran was “very ready” to resume war, before writing on X that “we did not come to New York to sell a war. We came to forge peace.”

Analysts believe these mixed signals are deliberate.

Abas Aslani of the Middle East Center for Strategic Studies said the dispute had shifted from whether to negotiate to “who would give up the main lever first,” while former U.S. Ambassador Richard Schmierer said Trump was caught between delaying beyond the midterms and the political cost of offering concessions that mirror a June deal for which he had already been criticized.

Nearly 70 percent of Americans now believe the war is not worth fighting, according to a new AP-NORC poll, with Trump erasing his declining approval rating by insisting that “the pollsters are corrupt.”