ISLAMABAD – Tensions between Iran and the US have been running high sinceWashington withdrew from the 2015 nuclear deal on 8 May 2018 that wassupposed to lift anti-Tehran sanctions in exchange for Iran maintaining thepeaceful nature of it programme. Since then, the Trump administration hasbeefed up pressure on Tehran, having imposed tougher sanctions.
Several unnamed US officials have told CNN that the Pentagon decidedto deploy an aircraft carrier strike group to the Middle East last monthafter it allegedly turned out that Iranian officials were not taking the USwarning seriously.
“It seems tensions have dropped some, but we are still watching veryclosely, we haven’t relaxed, we remain vigilant”, one defence official wasquoted as saying.
The insiders claimed that even though initial warning messages were sentto Iran through an unknown third party on 3 May, the Pentagon had someintelligence that Tehran was unfazed. Several days later the US publiclyannounced that it was dispatching military forces to the Gulf.
CNN additionally cited Gen. Joseph Dunford, chairman of the Joint Chiefs,as telling an audience at the Brookings Institution that after a purportedthreat of an attack emerged on 3 May, “we also saw in the intelligence thatperhaps there was a question about the will and capability of the UnitedStates to respond”.
“In the last weekend of April, I began to see more clearly things that Ihad been picking up on over a period of months”, Dunford reportedly said,adding that he remembers on 3 May, “multiple threat streams that were allperhaps coming together in time”.
On 5 May, US National Security Advisor John Bolton announced thatWashington was deploying an aircraft carrier strike group and a bomber taskforce to the Middle East to send a “clear and unmistakable message” to Iranthat any attack on American interests or those of its allies would be metwith “unrelenting force”.
In addition, in late May, US President Donald Trump confirmed that thePentagon would dispatch 1,500 more troops to the region.
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In an interview with the British news network ITV earlier this week, Trumpsaid that he didn’t rule out a military option against Iran:
“Do I want to? No. I’d rather not. But there’s always a chance. […] Theonly thing is we can’t let them have nuclear weapons”, he noted,reiterating that he, however, wanted to talk to Iran’s President HassanRouhani.
Rouhani previously signalled his readiness to start a dialogue with the US,provided that Washington shows respect and follows international rules.
The Trump White House has piled pressure on Iran since pulling out of the2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), also known as the Irannuclear deal, last May, and reinstating all sanctions against Tehran.
The Islamic Republic, in turn, announced last month that it would partiallysuspend some of its commitments under the agreement, having set a 60-daydeadline for the five remaining signatories — Russia, France, the UK,Germany, and China — to ensure that Iranian interests are guaranteed orelse the country would resume enriching uranium at higher levels. – Sputnik
