DUBAI—The U.S. is sending a guided-missile submarine to the Middle East and is speeding up the arrival of an additional aircraft carrier as the region braces for a possible Iranian response to the killing of Hamas’s political leader in Tehran.
U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin told his Israeli counterpart Yoav Gallant by phone Sunday that the deployments strengthen the U.S. military posture in the Middle East in light of recent tensions and reflect a “commitment to take every possible step to defend Israel.”
Tensions in the region have been at some of their highest levels in the 10 months of war in Gaza after a pair of high-profile killings in the capitals of Lebanon and Iran. An Israeli airstrike in Beirut killed a top Hezbollah official late last month.
Hours later Ismail Haniyeh, Hamas’s political leader and the face of the group in cease-fire negotiations with Israel, was killed in an attack at an Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps guesthouse in Tehran shortly after he attended the inauguration of Iran’s new president. Iran blamed the attack on Israel and vowed to seek revenge.
People across the region have been anxiously waiting for the past two weeks for a response, at times filling the void with a dark humor. Meanwhile, the U.S. and Israel have stepped up military preparations to fend off any attack, as a U.S.-led coalition did when Iran launched more than 300 missiles and drones at Israel in April.
U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin attends a joint press conference during the 2024 Australia-U.S. Ministerial Consultations (AUSMIN) at the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland, U.S., August 6, 2024. REUTERS/Kevin Mohatt
Austin told Gallant on Sunday that he had ordered the USS Abraham Lincoln Carrier Strike Group, which is equipped with F-35C jet fighters, to move more quickly to the Middle East, where it would add to the capabilities of the USS Theodore Roosevelt Carrier Strike Group already in the region. In early August, the Defense Department said the Lincoln would replace the Roosevelt in the region.
The Lincoln is in a class of the largest warships in the world, according to the U.S. Navy, and can hold dozens of aircraft. The guided-missile submarine ordered to the region, the USS Georgia, can carry more than 150 Tomahawk missiles, according to the Navy.
Smoke rises east of Khiam, amid cross-border hostilities between Hezbollah and Israeli forces, as pictured from Marjayoun, near the border with Israel, Lebanon August 9, 2024. REUTERS/Karamallah Daher
The barrage in April was Iran’s first direct attack on Israel, launched in response to a strike on an Iranian diplomatic compound in Syria that killed a senior general. Iran telegraphed that attack, U.S. and Arab diplomats have said. Most of the missiles and drones were shot down before reaching Israel, and no one was killed, heading off further escalation.
Iran and its allied Lebanese militia Hezbollah still have reason to avoid a broader war. But Iran has kept diplomats guessing about its plans this time, raising concerns that damage caused by an Iranian strike, or an Iranian miscalculation of how Israel would respond to one, could set off a new round of escalation.
The U.S. has warned Iran directly and through intermediaries that it could suffer a devastating blow were it to mount a major attack against Israel, the Journal reported last week.
