The commander overseeing US naval forces in the Middle East told Reuters on Thursday that American intelligence showing a threat from Iran will not prevent him from sending an aircraft carrier through the vital Strait of Hormuz, if needed.
“IT MIGHT BE A NEW FIELDING OF TECHNOLOGY BY IRAN”
Vice Admiral Jim Malloy, commander of the US Navy’s Bahrain-based Fifth Fleet, did not say whether he would send the USS Abraham Lincoln carrier strike group into the strategic waterway off Iran, through which passes a fifth of oil consumed globally.
The group, whose deployment to the Middle East was fast-tracked by Trump’s administration as a warning to Iran, transited through the Suez Canal into the Red Sea on Thursday and was now under Malloy’s command. “If I need to bring it inside the strait, I will do so,” Malloy said in an interview by phone. “I’m not restricted in any way, I’m not challenged in any way, to operate her anywhere in the Middle East.”
Iran has dismissed the US contention of a threat as “fake intelligence.” Tensions have risen between Tehran and Washington since the Trump administration withdrew a year ago from a 2015 international nuclear deal with Iran and began ratcheting up sanctions to throttle the Islamic Republic’s economy.
The Pentagon said it expedited the Lincoln’s deployment and sent bombers to the Middle East after US intelligence signaled possible preparations by Tehran to stage attacks against US forces or interests. Malloy said the intelligence was linked “with actual activity that we observed.” “And that was certainly enough for me … to say that we saw this as a threat,” he said.
US officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, say one of the pieces of intelligence indicated Iran had moved missiles on boats. One of the officials said the particular missile observed was perhaps capable of launching from a small ship.
The officials also noted growing concerns about the threat from Iran-backed Shi’ite militia in Iraq, which have long avoided any confrontation with US troops under the shared goal of defeating Islamic State, a Sunni militant organization.
Malloy, whose naval forces would support efforts to defend US troops throughout the region, did not enter into details on the US intelligence. But he confirmed that some of the US concerns centered on Iranian missiles. “It might be a new fielding of technology by Iran,” Malloy said, adding the weaponry “falls under the category of destabilizing and offensive in nature.”