The US Navy has deployed a guided-missile submarine amid the escalating tensions between the country and Iran.
A spokesman for the US Navy declared on Saturday that the department has deployed a submarine that is capable of carrying up to 154 Tomahawk missiles to the Middle East.
The move comes in response to what appeared to be a show of force towards Iran following recent tensions.
However, when asked by the media, Cmdr. Timothy Hawkins, a spokesman for the 5th Fleet based in the Gulf nation of Bahrain, reportedly refused to provide more details regarding the submarine’s mission or what had prompted the deployment.
According to Hawkins, the nuclear-powered submarine passed through the Suez Canal on Friday.
“It 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,” Hawkins said in the statement.
Moreover, in a report published by The New York Post, it was revealed that “the 5th Fleet patrols the crucial Strait of Hormuz, the narrow mouth of the Persian Gulf through which 20% of all oil transits. Its region includes the Bab el-Mandeb Strait off Yemen and the Red Sea stretching up to the Suez Canal, the Egyptian waterway linking the Mideast to the Mediterranean Sea.”
“The U.S., the U.K. and Israel have accused Iran of targeting oil tankers and commercial ships in recent years, allegations denied by Tehran.The U.S. Navy has also reported a series of tense encounters at sea with Iranian forces that it said were being recklessly aggressive,” the report added.
The move came a month after the United States launched airstrikes against Iran-backed forces in Syria in response to the rocket attack that killed a US contractor and severely injured seven other Americans in that country’s northeast.
“Tomahawk cruise missiles launched from ships or submarines can hit targets up to 1,500 miles away. They were famously employed during the opening hours of the 2003 U.S.-led invasion of Iraq and in response to a Syrian chemical weapons attack in 2018,” New York Post added.
“U.S.-Iranian tensions have soared since then-President Donald Trump withdrew from a 2015 agreement with world powers that provided sanctions relief in return for Iran curbing its nuclear activities and placing them under enhanced surveillance,” the report continued.
