The United States plans to maintain a significant force presence in the Middle East, including warships with ballistic missile defense capability, some of which are in the Red Sea to deter Houthi attacks against cargo vessels, US National Security Council spokesman John Kirby told reporters in Washington on Wednesday.
“The United States does not seek conflict with any nation or actor in the Middle East, nor do we want to see the war between Israel and Hamas widen in the region,” Kirby said.
“But neither will we shrink from the task of defending ourselves, our interests, our partners, or the free flow of international commerce,” he said.
On Tuesday, he explained, US President Joe Biden spoke with Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, while US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan spoke with Israel’s Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer. On Wednesday, the US along with 12 other nations published a joint statement “condemning Houthi attacks on commercial vessels in the Red Sea and reiterating that these attacks must cease immediately,” Kirby said.
The signatories were Australia, Bahrain, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Germany, Italy, Japan, Netherlands, New Zealand, Singapore and the United Kingdom.
Continuing presence in the Middle East
Kirby stressed that, “We have established and will continue to maintain a significant force presence in the Middle East,” including an aircraft carrier strike group centered around Dwight D. Eisenhower with 80 aircraft and an amphibious ready group led by an assault ship that was moved into the eastern Mediterranean, Kirby stated.
It did so as the Gerald R. Ford aircraft carrier group headed back to the US, Kirby added.
There are more than 4,000 sailors and marines and more than 50 aircraft in the eastern Mediterranean, Kirby said, adding that a number of the destroyers are designed for ballistic missile defense.
Kirby underscored US military prowess in the region amid heightened tensions that followed two explosions in Iran that killed more than 100 people and wounded scores, at a ceremony earlier on Wednesday to commemorate the US assassination of its top commander Qassem Soleimani. That followed a drone assassination of Hamas deputy leader Saleh al-Arouri in Beirut on Tuesday.
Kirby dismissed reports that Israel was behind the Iranian explosion and Arouri’s assassination
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