THE US has said it will send B-52 bombers as part of its increased military presence in the Middle East as tensions mount in the region after warnings that Iran is plotting a missile attack.
White House national security adviser John Bolton said on Sunday that the United States was deploying a carrier strike group and a bomber task force to the Middle East.
A spokesman for US Central Command confirmed the task force would consist of the long-range B-52 bombers which are capable of carrying nuclear weapons.
US officials said four B-52s would initially be sent but more could be sent in the future along with additional firepower and anti-missile defence systems.
Captain Bill Urban, a spokesman for US Central Command, has said there were “recent and clear indications” of threats to US forces there but declined to give further details.
One US official, speaking anonymously, said there were indications that Iran appeared to be moving short-range ballistic missiles on boats in the Middle East.
Iran dismissed the plan as “psychological warfare” and has said it will partially withdraw from the landmark nuclear deal it signed with six other nations in 2015.
President Hassan Rouhani said in a televised speech today that Iran would reduce its “commitments” to the deal but not fully withdraw.
US-Iran relations have been deteriorating since the US unilaterally withdrew from the deal last year despite warnings from the other signatories which included Britain, France, Germany, Russia and China.
The deal was an agreement between the Islamic Republic and a group of world powers aimed at scrapping the Middle Eastern country’s nuclear weapons programme.
It saw Iran agree to eliminate its stockpile of medium-enriched uranium by 98 per cent.
According to the deal, Iran would receive relief from the US, European Union, and the United Nations Security Council on all nuclear-related economic sanctions.
The agreement was reached on July 14, 2015, and the world powers signed it in Vienna.
However, on May 8, 2018, President Trump announced the US will withdraw from the agreement – which he has repeatedly called “insane” and ridiculous”.
America’s withdrawal from the agreement mean crippling economic sanctions will once again be placed on Iran – further heightening tensions between the two countries.
The US has also imposed further sanctions on Iran since it pulled out.
Rhouhani claimed in the speech the US had “spared no effort” in trying to undermine the deal.
Under the agreement, Iran was permitted to stockpile limited amounts enriched uranium and heavy water produced in that process, exporting any excess.
Rouhani said he would now keep enriched uranium stocks in the country rather than sell them abroad and also threatened to resume production of higher enriched uranium in 60 days.
French Defence Minister Florence Parly said the European powers were doing everything they could to keep the deal alive.
The Sun Online has contacted the Foreign Office for comment.
Iran and the US have also been engaged in an increasingly tense war of words with one another.
Rouhani warned the US in July last year that “war with Iran is the mother of all wars” while the US President Donald Trump responded with a furious message on Twitter written in capitals which said “never, ever threaten the United States again”.
Trump continued: “We are no longer a country that will stand for your demented words of violence and death. Be cautious!”
In a statement, the national security adviser, John Bolton, said at the time: “President Trump told me that if Iran does anything at all to the negative, they will pay a price like few countries have ever paid before.”
Bolton also issued a more recent threat saying on Sunday that he wanted to send “a clear and unmistakable message to the Iranian regime that any attack on United States interest or on those of our allies will be met with unrelenting force”.
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