WhatsappWith two weeks to go until inauguration day, the radical Iranian regime in Tehran raised it uranium enrichment to 20% in full violation of the nuclear agreement. From there, most agree it is fairly easy to get to 90% weapons grade enrichment.
In response, President Trump was persuaded to turn the USS Nimitz around and send it back to the Persian Gulf.
“Due to the recent threats issued by Iranian leaders against President Trump and other U.S. government officials, I have ordered the USS Nimitz (CVN-68) to halt its routine redeployment,” Acting Secretary of Defense Chris Miller said in the statement. “USS Nimitz will now remain on station in the U.S. Central Command area of operations. No one should doubt the resolve of the United States of America.”
Miller’s move is a reversal of the original order that would have seen the USS Nimitz return home after its current mission in Somalia is complete.
There are those of course that have suggested that the President is doing this for personal reasons. A statement that has no proof or even logic to it.
So what are the chances that Iran’s breaking of the nuclear agreement will lead to war before Trump leaves office, if today’s vote in Congress follows normal precedent?
Not likely. While President Trump understands that a Biden administration on its own will reach out to Iran in hopes of reentering the nuclear deal, the growing alliance between Israel and the Sunni Arab states makes it very hard for Biden to simply walk right back into the accord.
He may try, but the Middle East is a very different place from where he left it in 2016.
Then again, with tensions running high over the outcome of the congressional certification in Washington D.C. as well as the need to prevent a Biden administration bent on partnering with Iran, no matter the resulting fissure with Israel and the Sunni states, Trump may decide a limited strike on Iranian facilities is necessary.
Iran, for its part wants to run out the clock and appears to be using the upgrade to 20% uranium enrichment as a starting point in potential negotiations with the Biden administration. Already, in response to the change in the USS Nimitz’s deployment, the Iranians captured a South Korean ship that was traveling in the Persian Gulf.
Is this ship part of their bargaining and negotiation plan or is it an attempt to raise the stakes as inauguration day closes in?
We will know soon enough.
