The transfer comes amid protracted tensions between Washington and Tehran
The US Navy has damaged with its common protocol in asserting the deployment to the Middle East of a nuclear submarine able to launching 154 Tomahawk missiles. The show-of-force transfer comes amid ongoing tensions with Iran.
“[The submarine] is capable of carrying up to 154 Tomahawk land-attack cruise missiles and is deployed to US 5th Fleet to help ensure regional maritime security and stability,” stated Cmdr. Timothy Hawkins, a spokesman for the fifth Fleet based mostly in Bahrain, on Saturday.
Hawkins added that that submarine had handed via the Suez Canal on Friday on its path to an undisclosed location within the Middle East. He declined to touch upon the specifics of the submarine’s mission or what had led to its deployment.
The US Navy not often discloses details about the places or deployments of its submarines. Its fifth Fleet operates within the Persian Gulf, Red Sea, Arabian Sea and a few components of the Indian Ocean. The Strait of Hormuz, a slender passageway via which round 20% of all oil is transported, can be beneath the fleet’s remit.
The US and UK, and others, have accused Iran lately of assaults on industrial oil tankers, together with the 2019 assaults on Norwegian and Japanese vessels, which pressured each crews to desert ship. Tehran has vigorously denied the allegations.
The US has additionally accused Iran of “dangerous and harassing approaches” in direction of its navy lately within the Persian Gulf. Tensions between the 2 have been renewed final month after the US launched missile assaults on Iran-backed forces in Syria. This was in retaliation for the killing of a US contractor in a rocket assault within the northeast of the nation. Seven different Americans have been injured within the assault.
The rise in tensions was then fueled after then-President Donald Trump withdrew from a 2015 accord to supply Iran with sanctions aid, and regardless of the Biden administration’s makes an attempt to hunt a diplomatic treatment.
Washington has additionally expressed concern at Tehran’s assist for Russian forces in Ukraine. The US additionally objects to Iran’s place because it pertains to Israel – with whom it has a so-called proxy battle – and to China, who brokered the restoration of diplomatic ties final month between Iran and Saudi Arabia.