Several B-2 bombers took off from bases in the United States on Saturday headed for the Pacific, as President Donald Trump publicly weighs striking Iran.
The movement in itself is not a sign that a potential strike is imminent; the Air Force has practiced months of steady rotations of long-range bombers to a base in the Indian Ocean. But they come amid escalating tensions in the Middle East between Iran and longtime American ally Israel.
The B-2s, which according to flight trackers were accompanied by refueling aircraft, are the only aircraft capable of carrying the 30,000 pound bunker-buster bombs that can destroy Iranian nuclear facilities deep underground.
Trump has been weighing whether to use the American bombs to target the heavily fortified Iranian Fordow nuclear facility, which the Israeli military cannot reach alone.
Trump was set to attend a “national security meeting” in the Oval Office early Saturday evening.
Two camps have emerged within Trump’s party on the issue of direct military involvement in Iran, with a rift widening between them as each side becomes more firmly entrenched. While interventionists and Iran hawks urge Trump to take action, isolationists caution against engaging in another major Middle East war.
With the interventionist faction
appearing in recent days to be winning him over
, Trump on Thursday
set a two-week deadline
to decide whether or not to strike Iran directly.
The president has repeatedly said that Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon. Trump had relaunched negotiations with the country to reach a nuclear deal, but talks had stalled after several weeks as Iran refused to relinquish its uranium enrichment program.
The Pentagon referred a request for comment to the White House, which did not immediately respond to an inquiry on the move.
The U.S. has been regularly rotating B-2 bombers to Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean since at least April when the bombers were used to hit Houthi targets and drone launch sites in Yemen, which the group was using to attack commercial and military shipping in the Red Sea and launch attacks on Israel.
Since then, there have been a steady stream of the long-range bombers moving between Diego Garcia and their home airfields in the United States.
The long-range aircraft, if they land on Guam in this most recent movement, can reach targets across the Middle East.
The decision to move the B-2s came as Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi on Saturday warned that any direct U.S. engagement in the Iran-Israel conflict would be “very, very dangerous.”
Meanwhile, the
Israeli military said Saturday
that it had struck an Iranian nuclear research facility and killed three more Iranian military officials in targeted attacks, with a senior Israeli military official telling the army to prepare for a “prolonged campaign.”
Tensions between the two countries boiled over last week after Israel launched a “preemptive” strike against Iran, claiming that its aim was to destroy the country’s nuclear facilities. Israel has also killed several top Iranian military officials and nuclear scientists in targeted strikes.
The U.S. has joined
several European countries
in evacuating its citizens from Israel as the conflict intensifies. Nearly
80 staff and family members evacuated
the U.S. Embassy on Friday as U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee
advised American citizens
in the country on how to seek government assistance to safely depart.
Since Israel began bombing Iranian missile sites and areas linked to Tehran’s nuclear program — and as Iran has retaliated — the U.S. has moved new assets into the Middle East.
By next week, the U.S. will have two aircraft carriers in the region, and has moved several destroyers capable of providing air defense and striking sites deep inland, near the Israeli coast.
New air wings of F-16, F-22 and F-35 fighter planes have also arrived at U.S. bases in the Middle East, accompanied by over a dozen aerial refueling tankers to allow for extended air operations over the region.
