Third US Carrier Heads to Mideast as Iran Targets Bahrain

The American aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt is expected to arrive in the Middle East on Monday, November 16, according to a New York Times report. There it will join two other carriers already operating in the region. The deployment comes as Iran has resumed drone attacks on Bahrain after about two months in which it refrained from striking the Gulf kingdom directly.

On Sunday, Iran launched drones toward Bahrain for the second time in a few days. Bahrain's Defense Ministry said its air defense systems intercepted the aerial threats before they reached their targets. The Interior Ministry issued two alerts instructing residents to enter protected spaces. No injuries or damage were reported.

Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps claimed the attack targeted a radar system at an air base in Bahrain. The country also hosts a major US naval base. The US military has not yet issued an official response to Sunday's incident.

The attack followed another on Friday, when the US military announced it had downed two drones launched from Iran toward Bahrain. No casualties or damage were reported in that incident either. The Revolutionary Guards presented the launch as retaliation for an earlier US strike on a communications tower in Iran.

The renewed attacks mark a significant shift after a relatively long period of calm. Since the United States and Israel launched their campaign against Iran in February, Tehran has fired thousands of missiles and drones at Gulf states that host US military facilities. As a military stalemate set in and efforts to reach a settlement got underway, the intensity of the Iranian attacks gradually declined, until the past few days.

Tehran has made no secret of its intention to keep responding to military action against it. Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baqaei said on Sunday that his country is not waiting on decisions by others and is focused on defending its security. He said Iran would continue to respond to any military aggression by the United States or other countries.

Iranian parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf issued a sharp warning to Washington. "If the Americans make a mistake this time, the boundaries of the battlefield will be determined by the capability and will of Iran's armed forces, not by the will and ambitions of the Americans, and the smoke of a new war will get into the eyes of many," he said. Ghalibaf also revealed a "new missile city," which he claimed had been built during the war and "under enemy fire."

Iran's parliament speaker and Iran's president (Photo: Arab social media)

US intelligence assesses that Iran's ability to hit American and allied targets remains significant, according to a Wall Street Journal report. Officials in Washington estimate that Tehran still holds about 1,500 to 2,500 missiles, an arsenal that would let it continue delivering heavy blows. IDF assessments paint a similar picture, putting Iran's remaining stock at more than 1,500 ballistic missiles.

Diplomatic contacts have so far failed to produce a breakthrough. In recent weeks Qatar and Pakistan have sent mediators to Tehran in an effort to prevent a renewed slide into all-out war. The Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman said Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi is expected to travel to Pakistan and Oman in the coming days.

On the American side, the mediation effort suffered another setback. President Donald Trump announced on Thursday that Vice President JD Vance would no longer take part in talks with Iran. Vance had backed efforts to reach a diplomatic settlement and had publicly linked the war to the Republican Party's losses in the recent midterm elections. Trump, for his part, wrote that the United States no longer needs a deal with Tehran and that "those days are long gone."

According to US officials and people familiar with the discussions, the American and Israeli militaries have already drawn up plans for further strikes. These could focus on energy infrastructure and facilities vital to Iran's economy, among other targets. The key question is whether both countries are prepared to face renewed Iranian missile and drone attacks across the Middle East, and possibly well beyond it, in the heart of Europe.