The United States continues to take steps to lower temperatures in the Middle East, “to ward off regional escalation by Iran and its partners and proxies,” said Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin at a press briefing. “We’ve adjusted our military posture to strengthen our force protection and to reinforce our ironclad commitment to the defense of Israel and to remain prepared to respond to any contingency.”
“To maintain our carrier strike group presence in the Middle East, I have ordered the USS Abraham Lincoln to replace the USS Theodore Roosevelt later this month,” he said. “I’ve also ordered more cruisers and destroyers capable of ballistic missile defense to the region, and I’ve ordered the deployment of another fighter squadron to the middle East to reinforce our defensive air support capabilities there.”
“These posture adjustments add to our already broad range of capabilities in the region,” Defense Secretary Austin said, “and we remain ready to deploy on short notice to meet evolving threats to our security, our partners, or our interests.”
“The United States remains intensely focused on de-escalating tensions in the region, and we’re also focused on securing a ceasefire as part of a hostage deal to bring all of the hostages home and to end the war in Gaza,” he said.
In April, the United States, along with allies and partners, including Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Jordan, helped Israel fend off a massive drone and missile strike from Iran. The Iranian attack followed the targeted killing by Israel of the leader of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps-Qods Force, the organization responsible for the Iranian regime’s extraterritorial terrorist operations. On July 31, Ismail Haniyeh, a top leader of the Iran-backed terror group Hamas, which initiated the current conflict in Gaza after Hamas launched a brutal terror attack on Israel, was assassinated in Tehran.
Iran has vowed to retaliate, and tensions have soared, with the United States working to stop the conflict from escalating, not only by bolstering its defense posture in the region, but by encouraging Israel and Hamas to agree to the cease-fire proposal they have been negotiating for the past two months.
With deterrence and diplomacy, the United States is sending a clear message: a wider conflict in the Middle East must be avoided.
