U.S. military pushes more weaponry into the Middle East for possible strikes on Iran

WASHINGTON — The Defense Department is sending a wide range of additional weapons to the Middle East, including more warships, air defenses and submarines, in preparation for a possible military strike against Iran if President Donald Trump makes that decision, according to U.S. officials and reports from public sources.

The military hardware buildup comes as the United States and Iran continue diplomatic negotiations that could help avoid conflict. Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi noted “good progress” after indirect talks with Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff and his son-in-law Jared Kushner in Geneva on Tuesday. White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Wednesday that “progress has been made” in the negotiations but that “there are still many details to be discussed.”

The prospect of a breakthrough seemed distant, with the parties sharply divergent on fundamental issues. The Trump administration has insisted that Iran accept restrictions on its missile program, as well as its nuclear work, which Tehran has so far dismissed as out of the question.

Trump’s top national security advisers met in the White House Situation Room on Wednesday to discuss Iran, according to a senior administration official. No final decision on possible military action has been made, the official said, as the United States awaits a written response from Iran that could resolve some of the outstanding points of disagreement.

Meanwhile, the USS Gerald R. Ford, the second aircraft carrier Trump is sending to the Middle East, and accompanying ships are crossing the Atlantic Ocean to the Mediterranean Sea, according to U.S. officials. They are expected there in the coming days, and a nuclear submarine remains in the Mediterranean.

Upon arrival, they will join the USS Abraham Lincoln and accompanying ships that form its carrier strike group in the Persian Gulf, according to U.S. officials.

A number of other ships are also in the region, including at least three littoral combat ships, a guided-missile destroyer in the Red Sea and two guided-missile destroyers in the Persian Gulf near the Strait of Hormuz, according to U.S. Naval Institute ship tracking.

Senior Iranian officials have repeatedly warned in recent years that they would militarily block the Strait of Hormuz, a vital shipping lane that passes around 20% of the world’s oil supply, if the country were attacked. Iranian state media reported on Tuesday that parts of the Strait of Hormuz would be closed for a few hours due to “security precautions” while Iran’s elite Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps conducted military exercises there.

Aircraft carriers and accompanying warships allow the United States to carry out an attack on Iran without resorting to American aircraft stationed in the Arab Gulf states. These governments, fearing retaliation from Iran’s missile arsenal, declared that they would not allow offensive operations to be launched from their territory.

It remains unclear whether an attack on Iran would involve the U.S. military alone or joint operations with the Israeli military.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio is expected to travel to Israel on February 28 to meet with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, according to a State Department official.

Netanyahu, who visited Washington last week, is nervous about the status of ongoing negotiations with Iran, and Rubio will provide him with updates, a second State Department official said. Israel opposed the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, and Trump withdrew the United States from the deal during his first term.

At the height of street protests against the Iranian regime in January, Trump promised demonstrators that “help is on the way.” But no U.S. intervention materialized, and Iranian security forces shot dead thousands of unarmed protesters across the country. The US Human Rights Activists News Agency said in a report on Sunday that 7,015 people had been killed since protests began in late December.

Trump has said publicly that he floated the idea of ​​military action because Iran had ended its deadly crackdown on protesters. Since then, he has continued diplomatic negotiations.

The U.S. military buildup in the region is similar to what preceded a June airstrike ordered by Trump on three nuclear sites in Iran, when two aircraft carriers were deployed to the Arabian Sea.

The June strikes were the first time the United States launched airstrikes on Iranian soil. Operation Midnight Hammer lasted less than 30 minutes, according to the Pentagon. This time, a U.S. air attack on Iran could last longer, particularly if Trump attempts to inflict lasting — or even fatal — damage on the regime.

If negotiations with Iran fail, Trump has a range of options before him, including an all-out attack on Iran to eliminate the regime and limited strikes to prevent Iran from rebuilding its nuclear facilities and possibly destroying its ballistic missile sites, or he could do nothing at all. NBC News reported that Israeli officials told Trump in December that they wanted to strike Iranian ballistic missile sites.

The United States most likely has sufficient military capabilities in the region to carry out limited strikes, depending on the objectives, according to a retired senior defense official.

Under Trump’s decision, targets could include Iran’s air defense systems, which were already damaged in June’s war between Israel and Iran, ballistic missile depots and launchers, drone manufacturing plants and bases used by the Revolutionary Guard and Basij militia, both of which played leading roles in the deadly crackdown on anti-regime protests last month that killed thousands.

If Trump attempts to overthrow the regime, he could order a range of covert actions, as well as “decapitation” strikes aimed at killing the country’s leaders, including the country’s highest authority, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

Any strike on nuclear sites would likely include an attack on Kūh-e Kolang Gaz Lā, or Pickaxe Mountain, an underground site carved into the side of a mountain that was not targeted in June’s air war, former officials and experts said. Since June, Iran has resumed construction work at the site, located near another nuclear facility, Natanz, according to commercial satellite images and experts.

“My feeling about the administration is that they are going to pursue a policy of maximum weakening, or weakening of the regime, and if the inevitable consequence of that is regime change, then so be it,” said Mark Dubowitz, CEO of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, a think tank that has called for tougher sanctions and other measures against Iran.

Some Middle East experts believe that if Trump decides to pursue military action with the aim of regime change, he will need more assets in the region than currently exist.

“I don’t think they have enough equipment there yet,” said a retired senior defense official.

A number of air defense capabilities, including Patriot systems, are not all in place yet, according to a person familiar with the matter and a retired senior defense official.

How Trump decides to proceed on Iran could shape perceptions of U.S. power around the world, given his promise to protesters, and whether a generation of Iranians would lose faith in the United States, regional analysts say.

“American credibility is at stake in a major way,” Dubowitz said.

Leavitt said Wednesday that Trump was still considering military options but was hoping for a deal with Tehran. “I think the Iranians should come back to us with more details in the coming weeks, and so the president will continue to monitor how this plays out,” she said.

Leavitt also pointed to strikes ordered by Trump against nuclear enrichment sites in Iran in June and said the Iranians should make a deal.

“The president has always been very clear, however, regarding Iran or any other country in the world. [that] diplomacy is always its first option, and Iran would be very wise to make a deal with President Trump and with this administration,” she said.