The U.S. is reportedly sending a third aircraft carrier strike group to the Middle East, along with an amphibious force carrying 2,000 Marines, raising stakes for an escalation in the months-long conflict.
The deployment comes as President Donald Trump has signaled an intention to resume strikes on Iran after the November midterm elections.
The USS Theodore Roosevelt group and the Makin Island force have left San Diego, a U.S. official told Al Jazeera. Separately, the Wall Street Journal reported the full buildup is expected to be complete by November. Trump recently told aides that he expects to resume bombing Iran that same month, according to the newspaper.
The buildup comes as the war, now in its eighth month, remains stuck in a stalemate. Indirect talks have stalled as Washington rejected Iran’s proposal to reopen Hormuz in exchange for lifting the U.S. blockade, keeping oil prices above pre-war levels.
The Saudi-led coalition in Yemen on Thursday accused the Iran-backed Houthis of a drone attack on a Medina power station that supplies the Prophet’s Mosque.
Coalition spokesman Turki al-Maliki said that the strike on the Taibah distribution station knocked one transformer out of service but left the wider grid intact. A Houthi military staff told the Saba news agency that the claim was a “lie” intended to cover up what was described as Saudi Arabia’s failure to substantiate its earlier accusation that the Houthis targeted the Muslim holy city of Mecca.
The U.S. Treasury on Thursday sanctioned Iran’s auto and rail sectors, including state-owned rail firms and suppliers in the UAE, Hong Kong, Turkey and Indonesia. It also hit the A7 network, a Russia-linked financial channel Treasury says Iran uses to evade sanctions.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent claimed in a X post on Thursday that Iran loaded “ZERO crude oil” onto tankers in September.
Separately, United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations said a tanker was struck by an unknown projectile in the Strait of Hormuz on Thursday, causing a fire, though the crew was reported safe.
The stepped-up military presence came as diplomatic efforts to end the war appeared to remain deadlocked. Secretary of State Marco Rubio reportedly ordered Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi’s delegation to leave New York earlier than they had planned, after Qatari-mediated indirect talks failed to produce a breakthrough. The unusual diplomatic rebuke underscored the mistrust between the two countries.