Just a day after warning Iran to make a deal, the United States appears to be sending refuelling planes to key points in the region.
Dozens of planes are headed towards the Middle East as tensions between Iran and the US reach a breaking point after nuclear talks.
It comes as one Trump adviser told Axios: ‘The boss is getting fed up. Some people around him warn him against going to war with Iran, but I think there is 90% chance we see kinetic action in the next few weeks.’
Sources have suggested that any conflict would likely be a joint operation with Israel.
Security expert Will Geddes told Metro the influx of military equipment to the region is a show of force from Donald Trump, telling the Ayatollah to comply and step down.
He explained: ‘The big challenge is that the Ayatollah is not going to stand down. Khamenei has openly taunted Trump, saying he’ll send U.S. warships to the bottom of the sea if he tries anything.
‘If there is any action—and though Donald Trump hasn’t given an attack order yet—we are going to see a monumental display of U.S. military strength against Iran.’
Last month, the US moved the USS Abraham Lincoln and several guided missile destroyers into the region, which can be used to launch attacks from the sea.
As fears of a US attack in Iran mount, Dr Bamo Nouri, a professor in International Relations at the University of West London, told Metro that a conflict launched by the US would be easy to start – but hard to control.
‘An outright war would carry enormous and unpredictable costs for both sides. For Washington, military strikes could backfire by unifying Iran domestically, accelerating its nuclear programme rather than halting it, and pulling the US into a prolonged regional confrontation,’ he explained.
‘For Iran, direct war with the United States would threaten regime stability and risk devastating infrastructure losses.’
Dr Nouri said that structurally, neither Iran nor the US would benefit from a full-scale war.