The US military has denied an Israeli media report that it is preparing for a possible resumption of operations against Iran, dismissing claims of changes to its regional force posture as “pure speculation”.
Responding to Anadolu, a US Central Command (Centcom) official says there are no updates to the US force posture in the Middle East.
The denial follows a report by the Israeli public broadcaster KAN, which cites a US official as saying that Centcom had urged Israel to prepare for a possible resumption of military operations against Iran in the near future. The warning was reportedly conveyed to Israeli military representatives in the United States.
KAN also reports that Washington is sending similar messages to Gulf countries through security channels.
The report further claims that the US deployed around 200 aerial refuelling aircraft across the Middle East and Europe, with two aircraft carriers — the USS George Washington and USS George HW Bush — already in the region and a third, the USS Roosevelt, expected to arrive in the Arabian Sea next week.
