US military assets heading to Middle East even as Trump backs off toughest Iran rhetoric
WASHINGTON, Jan 22 (Reuters) - A U.S. military aircraft carrier strike group and other assets will arrive in the Middle East region in the coming days, two U.S. officials said on Thursday, even as U.S. President Donald Trump voices hopes of avoiding new military action against Iran.
U.S. warships including the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln, several destroyers and fighter aircraft started moving from the Asia-Pacific last week as tensions between Iran and the United States soared following a severe crackdown on protests across Iran in recent months.
One of the officials said additional air defense systems were also being eyed for the Middle East. The United States often increases U.S. troop levels in the Middle East at moments of heightened regional tensions, something that experts note can be entirely defensive in nature.
However, the U.S. military staged a major buildup last summer ahead of its June strikes against Iran's nuclear program, and later boasted about how it kept its intention to strike a secret.
Trump had repeatedly threatened to intervene against Iran over the recent killings of protesters there but protests dwindled last week and Trump's rhetoric regarding Iran has eased. He has turned his gaze on other geopolitical issues, including his pursuit of Greenland.
On Wednesday, Trump said he hoped there would not be further U.S. military action in Iran, but said the United States would act if Tehran resumed its nuclear program.
"They can't do the nuclear," Trump told CNBC in an interview in Davos, Switzerland, noting major U.S. air strikes on Iran's nuclear facilities in June 2025. "If they do it, it's going to happen again."
It is now at least seven months since the U.N. nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency, last verified Iran's stock of highly enriched uranium. Its own guidance is that it should be done monthly.
Iran must file a report to the IAEA on what happened to those sites that were struck by the United States and nuclear material thought to be there, including an estimated 440.9 kg of uranium enriched to up to 60% purity, close to the roughly 90% weapons-grade level. That is enough material, if enriched further, for 10 nuclear bombs, according to an IAEA yardstick.
It is unclear whether protests in Iran could also surge again. The protests began on December 28 as modest demonstrations in Tehran’s Grand Bazaar over economic hardship and quickly spread nationwide.
The U.S.-based HRANA rights group said it has so far verified 4,519 unrest-linked deaths, including 4,251 protesters, 197 security personnel, 35 people aged under 18 and 38 bystanders who it says were neither protesters nor security personnel.
HRANA has 9,049 additional deaths under review. An Iranian official told Reuters the confirmed death toll until Sunday was more than 5,000, including 500 members of the security forces.
(Reporting by Phil Stewart and Idrees Ali in Washington; Editing by Matthew Lewis)
