"Nimitz" aircraft carrier withdraws from Middle East

The US aircraft carrier Nimitz returned to the United States after the Pentagon ordered the warship to remain in the Middle East last month due to Iranian threats to US interests after months of tension.

On Monday, three Defense Department officials said that Nimitz and its 5,000 crew were ordered back to Bremerton on Sunday, after a mission for the carrier exceeded its usual 10-month period.

"The New York Times" considered the return of the aircraft carrier to the homeland as a sign of easing the escalating tensions with Tehran.

President Joe Biden is looking forward to renewing discussions with Iran about the 2015 nuclear deal that Trump withdrew from, when these immediate tensions seem to have eased a bit.

In order to deter Iran and its proxies in Iraq from attacking American personnel in the Persian Gulf to avenge the killing of Major General Qassem Soleimani, the Pentagon has been engaged for weeks in a muscle-flexing strategy.

The Pentagon confirmed last month that it had discovered new intelligence information that Iran was planning to target Trump in the weeks before the inauguration, so it ordered Nimitz and its wing of attack aircrafts to stay near the Persian Gulf in anticipation.

Soon after he took office, Biden's assistants assessed that the time had come to bring Nimitz home, and General Kenneth Mackenzie Jr., commander of the Army's Central Command, said last week, "American firepower in the region has likely helped deter Iran and its proxies from any attacks in the final days of the Trump administration. "

The three Pentagon officials said that no decision has been taken on sending another aircraft carrier to the Middle East to replace "Nimitz", but the Eisenhower aircraft carrier, which is now in the Atlantic and bound for the Mediterranean, and the Theodore Roosevelt aircraft in the Pacific Ocean, It can be sent out in the coming weeks or months.

The Air Force is also expected to continue sending B-52 bombers on patrol missions, back and forth, to show off force in the Persian Gulf.

"This is still a tense time," said Vice Admiral John W. Miller, a retired commander of the Fifth Fleet, based in Bahrain, who recently visited the Persian Gulf region.

J.O