2nd Carrier Being Sent to Middle East  02/13 06:21

   The United States will send the world's largest aircraft carrier to the 
Middle East to back up another already there, a person familiar with the plans 
said Friday, putting more American firepower behind President Donald Trump's 
efforts to coerce Iran into a deal over its nuclear program.

   WASHINGTON (AP) -- The United States will send the world's largest aircraft 
carrier to the Middle East to back up another already there, a person familiar 
with the plans said Friday, putting more American firepower behind President 
Donald Trump's efforts to coerce Iran into a deal over its nuclear program.

   The USS Gerald R. Ford's planned deployment to the Mideast comes after Trump 
only days earlier suggested another round of talks with the Iranians was at 
hand. Those negotiations didn't materialize as one of Tehran's top security 
officials visited Oman and Qatar this week and exchanged messages with the U.S. 
intermediaries.

   Already, Gulf Arab nations have warned any attack could spiral into another 
regional conflict in a Mideast still reeling from the Israel-Hamas war in the 
Gaza Strip. Meanwhile, Iranians are beginning to hold 40-day mourning 
ceremonies for the thousands killed in Tehran's bloody crackdown on nationwide 
protests last month, adding to the internal pressure faced by the 
sanctions-battered Islamic Republic.

   The Ford's deployment, first reported by The New York Times, will put two 
carriers and their accompanying warships in the region. Already, the USS 
Abraham Lincoln and its accompanying guided-missile destroyers are in the 
Arabian Sea.

   The person who spoke to The Associated Press on the deployment did so on 
condition of anonymity to discuss military movements.

   Ford had been part of Venezuela strike force

   It marks a quick turnaround for the Ford, which Trump sent from the 
Mediterranean Sea to the Caribbean last October as the administration build up 
a huge military presence in the lead-up to the surprise raid last month that 
captured then-Venezuelan President Nicols Maduro.

   It also appears to be at odds with Trump's national security strategy, which 
put an emphasis on the Western Hemisphere over other parts of the world.

   Trump on Thursday warned Iran that failure to reach a deal with his 
administration would be "very traumatic." Iran and the United States held 
indirect talks in Oman last week.

   "I guess over the next month, something like that," Trump said in response 
to a question about his timeline for striking a deal with Iran on its nuclear 
program. "It should happen quickly. They should agree very quickly."

   Trump told Axios earlier this week that he was considering sending a second 
carrier strike group to the Middle East.

   Trump held lengthy talks with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on 
Wednesday and said he insisted to Israel's leader that negotiations with Iran 
needed to continue. Netanyahu is urging the administration to press Tehran to 
scale back its ballistic missile program and end its support for militant 
groups such as Hamas and Hezbollah as part of any deal.

   The USS Ford set out on deployment in late June 2025, which means the crew 
will have been deployed for eight months in two weeks time. While it is unclear 
how long the ship will remain in the Middle East, the move sets the crew up for 
an usually long deployment.

   The White House didn't immediately respond to a request for comment.

   Ford's deployment comes as Iran mourns

   Iran at home faces still-simmering anger over its wide-ranging suppression 
of all dissent in the Islamic Republic. That rage may intensify in the coming 
days as families of the dead begin marking the traditional 40-day mourning for 
the loved ones. Already, online videos have shown mourners gathering in 
different parts of the country, holding portraits of their dead.

   One video purported to show mourners at a graveyard in Iran's Razavi 
Khorasan province, home to Mashhad, on Thursday. There, with a large portable 
speaker, people sang the patriotic song "Ey Iran," which dates to 1940s Iran 
under the rule of Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi. While initially banned after the 
1979 Islamic Revolution, Iran's theocratic government has played it to drum up 
support.

   "Oh Iran, a land of full of jewels, your soil is full of art," they sang. 
"May evil wishes be far from you. May you live eternal. Oh enemy, if you are a 
piece of granite, I am iron."