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Second U.S. aircraft carrier expected to head to Middle East, officials say, amid Iran tensions

By
Eleanor Watson
CBS News Reporter
Eleanor Watson is a CBS News multi-platform reporter and producer covering the Pentagon.
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Eleanor Watson,
Charlie D'Agata
Charlie D'Agata
Senior national security correspondent
Charlie D'Agata is CBS News' senior national security correspondent. He was previously a senior foreign correspondent and has spent more than two decades covering international news for CBS.
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Charlie D'Agata,
Joe Walsh
Senior Editor, Politics
Joe Walsh is a senior editor for digital politics at CBS News. Joe previously covered breaking news for Forbes and local news in Boston.
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Joe Walsh

/ CBS News

The USS Gerald R. Ford aircraft carrier and its escort ships are expected to head from the Caribbean to the Middle East, three U.S. officials told CBS News, adding a second aircraft carrier to the region as tensions between the U.S. and Iran continue to simmer.

The Ford — which is the Navy's most advanced aircraft carrier — is set to join the USS Abraham Lincoln and its carrier strike group, which arrived in the Middle East late last month. The region is overseen by the U.S. military's Central Command.

The Ford carrier strike group has been in the Caribbean region since November, part of a broader military buildup near Venezuela. American forces in that region have conducted dozens of strikes on alleged drug trafficking boats and, last month, captured former Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and his wife.

The was first to report on the Ford's expected movement.

The planned deployment comes as President Trump presses Iran to strike a nuclear deal, threatening military action against Iran if it doesn't agree to curb its nuclear program. The president also pressured Iran over its violent crackdown on anti-regime protesters last month.

In a speech at Fort Bragg in North Carolina on Friday, Mr. Trump said "we sent a very big carrier group to Iran."

Mr. Trump reiterated that he'd like to make a deal with Iran, but "sometimes you have to have fear because that's the only thing that really will get the situation taken care of."

The president has repeatedly warned in recent weeks that a "massive armada" is on its way to Iran. In an on Tuesday, Mr. Trump said he was "thinking" about sending another aircraft carrier strike group to the Middle East region.

"Either we will make a deal or we will have to do something very tough like last time," he told Axios, seemingly referring to a set of U.S. strikes on Iranian nuclear sites in June.

Mr. Trump that Iran's Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, "should be very worried." Khamenei, meanwhile, warned that any attacks by the U.S. would spark a "regional war" in the Middle East.

Representatives from Iran and the U.S. held indirect talks in Oman last week. Officials from both countries said the talks went well and that negotiations would continue.

Kristin Brown contributed to this report.

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