President Donald Trump said that an "armada" of US warships is heading for Iran, but expressed hope that he will not have to use them, repeating his warnings to Tehran not to kill protesters and not to renew its nuclear program, Reuters reported, BTA reported.
US officials, who wished to remain anonymous, said that the aircraft carrier "Abraham Lincoln" and guided-missile destroyers are set to arrive in the Middle East in the coming days.
An official said that the deployment of more air defense systems to the Middle East, which could be crucial to protecting against a possible Iranian attack on US bases in the region, is also being considered.
The deployment of these forces expands Trump's ability to both better protect US forces in the region at a time of tension and to take additional military action after the strikes on Iranian nuclear sites in June.
“We have a lot of ships moving in that direction, just in case. I would rather nothing happens, but we are watching them very closely,“ Trump told reporters aboard “Air Force One” on his way back to the United States after meeting with world leaders in Davos, Switzerland.
Warships began moving out of the Asia-Pacific region last week as tensions between Iran and the United States escalated over the Islamic Republic's crackdown on protests, Reuters reported.
Trump has repeatedly threatened to take action against Iran over the killings of protesters, but demonstrations have subsided in the past week.
The president abandoned his most hardline rhetoric last week, claiming to have halted executions of prisoners.
He repeated that claim yesterday, saying Iran had canceled nearly 840 hangings following his threats.
"I said, "If you hang these people, they will hit you harder than you have ever been hit. It will make what we did to your nuclear program look like a small thing," Trump said.
"An hour before this terrible thing happened, they canceled it," he said, calling the incident "a good sign".
In the past, the US military has periodically increased its forces in the Middle East at times of heightened tension, and these actions have often been defensive, according to Reuters. And he recalls that the US military began amassing large forces before its strikes in June against Iran's nuclear program. Trump said the US would take action if Tehran resumed its nuclear program.
"If they try to do it again, they will have to go to another area. We will hit them there too, it's easy," he said yesterday.
Iran must report to the UN nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), what happened to the sites hit by the US and the nuclear material believed to have been there. That includes about 440.9 kg of uranium enriched to 60% purity, which, if enriched enough, could be enough for 10 nuclear bombs, according to IAEA standards.
The UN agency has not inspected Iran's stockpile of enriched uranium for at least seven months, and the watchdog recommends checking it every month.
It is unclear whether the protests in Iran could intensify again, Reuters reported. They began on December 28 as modest demonstrations in Tehran's Grand Bazaar against economic hardship and quickly spread across the country. The US-based human rights group HRANA said it has so far confirmed 4,519 deaths related to the unrest, including 4,251 protesters, and is verifying another 9,049 deaths.