US Navy sends carrier to Gulf but no buildup

By Staff
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MANAMA, July 10 (Reuters) The United States is replacing one of its aircraft carriers in the Gulf, where the Fifth Fleet is keeping an eye on Iran, but the Pentagon said today no decision had been made to increase forces in the region.

Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman said the USS Enterprise was expected to arrive within weeks in the Gulf, where the US has been flexing its muscles in a standoff with Iran over Tehran's nuclear programme that had stocked regional tensions.

''There is a scheduled swap of carriers that is part of the routine deployment of the Enterprise,'' Whitman told reporters.

''Has the department made a decision for three carriers in the Gulf? No,'' he added.

In May, a flotilla of US warships sailed through the Gulf to hold exercises off Iran's coast in a major show of force that unnerved oil markets.

The US Navy said in a statement that the Enterprise would provide ''navy power to counter the assertive, disruptive and coercive behaviour of some countries,'' and take part in anti-submarine, anti-surface, anti-mine, air and missile defence and air strike operations.

The West suspects Iran of secretly seeking to build a nuclear bomb and wants Tehran to suspend uranium enrichment activities.

Tehran insists its atomic ambitions are peaceful.

Earlier this month, commercial satellite imagery showed Iran was building a tunnel facility inside a mountain near a key nuclear complex -- a move nuclear analysts said could be an attempt to protect nuclear activity from aerial attack.

A senior US Navy commander in May singled out the Strait of Hormuz, a narrow channel off Iran's coast and conduit for about a 40 per cent of globally traded oil, as a key area in need of protection from a ''state or non-state actor''.

The US Navy declined to comment on the future movements of the USS Stennis and the USS Nimitz, currently deployed in the Fifth Fleet area of operations, which includes the Gulf, the Arabian Sea, the Red Sea, the Gulf of Aden, Gulf of Oman and parts of the Indian Ocean.

''These operations are not specifically aimed at Iran... We consider this time unprecedented in terms of the amount of insecurity and instability in the region,'' Navy spokeswoman Denise Garcia said, citing tensions Somalia, Lebanon, Iraq and Afghanistan.

''At this point we are not making any announcements about departures of ships from the region, but ships routinely come and go from the Fifth Fleet area of operations.'' Tension over Tehran's nuclear ambitions has raised regional fears of a military confrontation. Iran has dismissed previous US drills off its coast as morale-boosting exercises, and has said it had missiles that could sink big war ships in the Gulf.

REUTERS SBC RK2250

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