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The United States is now facing a number threats, a few of which have involved the military who dispatch ships, as America takes a stance against issues with Iran, China and North Korea, while a shaky cease-fire holds in Israel.
An unspecified threat of a possible attack by Iran against the US prompted Washington to deploy an aircraft carrier to the Middle East.
On Sunday night, White House National Security Adviser John Bolton said the U.S. is deploying the USS Abraham Lincoln Carrier Strike Group and a bomber task force to the U.S. Central Command region, an area which includes the Middle East.
Although Bolton did not provide details, he said the move was in response to “a number of troubling and escalatory indications and warnings,” adding that the aim of the US was to send a “clear and unmistakable” message to Iran that any attack on US interests or those of its allies would be met with “unrelenting force.”
On Monday, the US sailed two of its warships near islands claimed by China in the disputed South China Sea. The US sent its guided-missile destroyers the USS Preble and USS Chung-Hoon into the disputed seas, passing “within 12 nautical miles of Gaven and Johnson reefs,” said Commander Clay Doss, a spokesman for the U.S. Navy’s Seventh Fleet.
The US says the presence of its ships are there to assert international rights to “innocent passage” and “challenge excessive maritime claims” according to Commander Doss.
“All operations are designed in accordance with international law and demonstrate that the United States will fly, sail and operate wherever international law allows,” Doss added.
On Sunday, Indonesia sunk dozens of foreign boats to deter illegal fishing in its waters, as the country continues to assert sovereignty over what it claims as its own territorial waters. The US has said that China is bullying its allies.
North Korea tested a new short-range missile on Saturday has alarmed regional allies of the United States, while Trump and his top advisers are downplaying the incident, noting it is not the long-range missiles that Pyongyang has refrained from launching since 2017.
Palestinian terror group Hamas, which controls the Gaza Strip, shelled Israel with nearly 700 rockets over a two day period, leaving 23 people dead in Gaza and 4 dead in Israel. Egyptian mediators have brokered a cease-fire agreement which went into effect on Monday morning.
