The United States continues moving war machines to the Middle East as Israel continues its military bombardment on Iran.
Meanwhile, recent reports claim Iran is crying uncle and wants to negotiate a ceasefire with President Donald Trump, who can’t seem to decide if he wants to deal or not.
A U.S. defense official told the military newspaper Stars and Stripes on Monday that the USS Nimitz Carrier Strike Group is on its way to the Middle East “amid ongoing strikes between Israel and Iran.” The group includes four destroyers — the USS Curtis Wilbur, USS Gridley, USS Wayne E. Meyer, and USS Lenah Sutcliffe Higbee — and an air squadron comprising Growler and Super Hornet fighter jets and combat helicopters.
Reports also say the Air Force has sent 30 U.S. air-refueling tankers across the Atlantic. “Officials have described some of these movements as routine or related to NATO exercises in Europe,” Newsweek noted.
These recent moves are in addition to the USS Thomas Hudner destroyer that was ordered closer to Israel the day after it commenced its surprise attack The U.S. military has also been helping Israel shoot down missiles Iran has been volleying at the homeland, where several people have been killed.
The mobilization of these war assets has prompted some of Trump’s most recognizable and influential supporters to raise alarms about what many Americans fear is about to turn into another U.S. interventionist quagmire. Podcasters Steve Bannon, who worked for Trump as an advisor, and Tucker Carlson, who went on a live pro-Trump tour in 2024, have been using their platforms to hammer against the idea of further military involvement. Both men spoke Monday about the eerily similar narratives we’re hearing about Iran today that we heard about Iraq possessing weapons of mass destruction. In response to the criticism, Trump has lashed out at Carlson, calling him “kooky.”
Following Israel’s strike Thursday evening (U.S. time), Secretary of State Marco Rubio issued a statement denying U.S. involvement. The Iranians contested that story from the beginning. Interestingly, initial accusations included a claim that American refueling tankers were operating near Iran 24 hours before Israel struck.
On Monday, reporters asked the president about full-on kinetic involvement in the Middle East. He declines to answer directly, saying, “I don’t want to talk about that.”
The Iranians allege that the United States is already heavily involved. They claim the two longtime allies coordinated the attack. The fact that the United States knew of Israel’s coming attack is indisputable, as the U.S. government ordered non-essential personnel out of the region within 48 hours of the attack.
Trump’s first public comments after Israel’s attack didn’t help quell suspicions of U.S. involvement. Instead of bolstering Rubio’s statement of American nonparticipation, the president bragged about the lethal efficiency of Israel’s American-made weapons and issued another call for a nuclear deal. But the following day, he did post a message on his Truth Social account that aligned with the official Washington narrative. He said:
The U.S. had nothing to do with the attack on Iran, tonight. If we are attacked in any way, shape or form by Iran, the full strength and might of the U.S. Armed Forces will come down on you at levels never seen before. However, we can easily get a deal done between Iran and Israel, and end this bloody conflict!!!
Also, an Axios report claims to have spoken to Israeli officials who said the two countries had used nuclear negotiations as a ruse intended to keep Iranian targets from moving to new locations.
It’s also unknown whether Israel’s attack was contrary to the wishes of the Trump administration. Some commentators have pointed to Rubio’s initial statement on the matter, which did not include a declaration of support for Israel, as a sign that Israel did what it did without the blessing of the United States. Trump also told reporters days prior that he asked Israeli leadership not to hit Iran while negotiations were underway.
As expected, after Israel attacked, Iran called off the weekend’s upcoming nuclear deal talks and said the idea was off the table so long as they were taking incoming fire. But fresh reports from the Wall Street Journal and Reuters claim that Iran has had enough punishment and is sending messages through Arab liaisons that it wants a ceasefire and is ready to head back to the negotiating table. The Journal reported Monday:
In the midst of a ferocious Israeli air campaign, Tehran has told Arab officials it would be open to returning to the negotiating table as long as the U.S. doesn’t join the attack, the officials said. Iran also passed messages to Israel saying it is in the interest of both sides to keep the violence contained.
Reuters reported that Tehran has asked Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and Oman to push Trump into influencing Israel into agreeing to a ceasefire. In return, Iran will head back to the negotiating table in a more flexible posture. Reuters reported:
Gulf leaders and their top diplomats worked the phones all weekend, speaking to each other, to Tehran, Washington and beyond in an effort to prevent a widening of the biggest ever confrontation between longstanding enemies Israel and Iran.… Iran made clear to Oman and Qatar that it would not negotiate while it is under attack and will only begin serious negotiations once it has finished responding to Israeli strikes, the official said.
Since Thursday, Israel has killed up to 20 high-ranking Iranian military officials and up to 10 nuclear scientists. It has bombed multiple nuclear and military sites (although it hasn’t achieved its official mission of completely destroying Iran’s nuclear program). Israel has also had free reign over Iranian airspace, and despite receiving waves of missile and drone attacks on the homeland, Israel has been in undeniable command.
Trump confirmed Monday while attending the G7 Summit that Iran would indeed “like to talk.” “I’d say Iran is not winning this war and they should talk. And they should talk immediately before it’s too late,” Trump said. But later in the day, he told reporters on Air Force One that he wasn’t “too much in the mood to negotiate.” Whether Trump is deploying misdirection or displaying indecisiveness is anyone’s guess, perhaps even Trump’s.
Israel indicates that the time for negotiations has passed:
When asked if a diplomatic mechanism was being worked out to end the campaign, Israeli National Security Adviser Tzachi Hanegbi told Army Radio on Monday: “It is a little early for that. You don’t go to war and look to end it three days later.”
Israel’s official primary mission is to end Iran’s nuclear program. But despite its unrelenting and largely resistance-free barrage, it as yet to achieve that. Iran’s most heavily fortified nuclear facility in Fordrow is tucked into a mountain and has remained intact. Richard Nephew, who worked as a negotiator between Iran and the United States for the Biden and Obama administrations, told the Wall Street Journal, “Israel thus far has targeted important parts of the Iranian nuclear program. But if you are worried about a nuclear breakout, Fordow is the game.” It turns out the only way to destroy that facility from the air would be “with a massive bunker-busting U.S. bomb.”
Iran’s nuclear program started in 1957 when the U.S. helped launch it under President Dwight Eisenhower’s “Atoms for Peace” initiative. By the 1970s, American and European nations were helping the Iranians build reactors. But the 1979 Islamic Revolution put in power an authoritarian theocracy that begin butting heads with the United States and Israel. The West has oscillated between erratic support (when Iran was needed to counterbalance Iraq) and outright opposition to Iran’s military capability.
It’s worth mentioning that, as some researchers have noted, the Iranian Shah, Mohammad Reza Pahlav, who was considered an ally to the West, was overthrown in 1979 at the behest of U.S. and British policymakers. A central player in the betrayal is someone loyal readers of this magazine have learned quite a bit about. According to researcher and author James Perloff:
Houchang Nahavandi, one of the Shah’s ministers and closest advisers, reveals in his book The Last Shah of Iran: “We now know that the idea of deposing the Shah was broached continually, from the mid-seventies on, in the National Security Council in Washington, by Henry Kissinger, whom the Shah thought of as a firm friend.
In his 2009 TNA article “Iran and the Shah: What Really Happened,” Perloff lays out how the Americans duped the Shah and, with the help of communist insurgents, deposed him. He eventually died in exile. Perloff floats a few theories as to why, considering the Shah’s closeness to the United States, American Deep Staters would do what they did. One guess has to do with oil.