The world's largest aircraft carrier, the USS Gerald R. Ford, will arrive this Friday along with its escort group off the coast of Israel as part of the U.S. military deployment in the Middle East in anticipation of a possible attack on Iran, according to Israeli media. According to The Times of Israel, the aircraft carrier departed yesterday from the Greek island of Cre following a stop at a U.S. naval base for supplies. It is now heading to the Haifa area, a northern city with the largest port and one of the country's most important naval bases. Additionally, Israeli Channel 12 reported that two dozen U.S. refueling aircraft landed at Ben Gurion Airport early this morning, joining the dozen U.S. Air Force F-22 fighters that landed in Israel on Tuesday. Ford is the second aircraft carrier to be sent to the region after the USS Abraham Lincoln, which arrived in the Persian Gulf with its three escort ships at the beginning of this January. The largest ship of its type in the U.S. Navy began its deployment last June and was sent from the Mediterranean to the Caribbean, where it began its mission in mid-November as part of the pressure campaign against the then-government of Nicolás Maduro in Venezuela. Combat aircraft on board Ford participated in the January 3 attack on Caracas, in which President Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, were captured. Earlier this February, U.S. President Donald Trump ordered its return to the Middle East. Iran and the U.S. concluded their third round of negotiations this Thursday on the scope and development of Iran's nuclear program under the military threats from Washington, which has deployed its largest forces since the invasion of Iraq with two aircraft carriers, several destroyers, and dozens of combat aircraft in the vicinity of the Islamic Republic. The meeting in Geneva concluded with positive statements from the mediators and a next meeting already set for next week.
