Pentagon withdraws USS Roosevelt from West Asia
The USS Lincoln and over a dozen warships have remained in the region as part of Washington's pledge to 'defend' Israel
The Pentagon announced on 12 September that the USS Theodore Roosevelt aircraft carrier and the USS Daniel Inouye destroyer have been ordered to sail back to US shores after a three-month stint in West Asian waters, leaving the USS Abraham Lincoln and over a dozen other warships behind to stand in “defense” of Israel.
US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin last month ordered the Roosevelt to extend its deployment to the Gulf of Oman and the Lincoln to make haste to the region.
The two aircraft carriers overlapped their deployment for three weeks. The Roosevelt and the Inouye are expected to be in the Indo-Pacific Command’s region on Thursday.
The nuclear-powered USS Georgia submarine was also recently deployed to West Asian waters, joining thousands of US troops already present in the region. The warships have played a significant role in Washington’s illegal war against Yemen, allowing US jets to launch dozens of air raids alongside the UK Royal Air Force in a failed attempt to deter Sanaa’s pro-Palestine operations.
Over the past several weeks, the Pentagon shifted its warships from the Red Sea to the Gulf of Oman and deployed additional fighter jets, ballistic missile defense-capable cruisers, and destroyers to Europe and West Asia.
Washington’s heavy militarization of the region intensified after Iran, Yemen, and Lebanon’s Hezbollah pledged to “punish” Israel for attacks that killed Hamas politburo chief Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran, Hezbollah senior commander Fuad Shukr in Beirut, and at least six Yemenis in the port city of Hodeidah.
Earlier this month, Israeli media revealed that Washington warned Tel Aviv that US naval forces “cannot indefinitely be deployed” to West Asia to protect Israel.
Channel 13 revealed that a message was sent urging Israel to de-escalate tensions with Hezbollah and Iran because “the [US] aircraft carriers will not be able to stay in the area forever.”