USS Gerald Ford, world’s largest aircraft carrier, leaves Crete as US-Iran talks begin
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The USS Gerald R. Ford was sent to the Mediterranean in a military build-up to put pressure on Iran.
PHOTO: AFP
SOUDA, Greece – The USS Gerald R. Ford, the world’s largest aircraft carrier, sent to the Mediterranean this week in a military build-up to put pressure on Iran
Its departure came as a new round of indirect talks between the United States and Iran on the latter’s nuclear programme, mediated by Oman’s foreign minister, opened in Geneva in the morning on Feb 26.
The vessel has been at the US Naval Support Activity Souda Bay base in Crete since Feb 23. The US embassy in Athens has declined to comment on the carrier’s presence, forwarding questions to the Pentagon in Washington.
US President Donald Trump ordered strikes on Iran in 2025. He has repeatedly threatened Tehran with fresh military action if it does not cut a new deal on its contentious nuclear programme, which the West fears is aimed at building an atomic weapon.
Washington has more than a dozen warships in the Middle East: one aircraft carrier – the USS Abraham Lincoln – nine destroyers and three other combat ships.
It is rare for there to be two US aircraft carriers, which carry dozens of warplanes and are crewed by thousands of sailors, in the Middle East. AFP
