Tensions between Iran and the US have been running high since Washington withdrew from the 2015 nuclear deal on 8 May 2018 that was supposed to lift anti-Tehran sanctions in exchange for Iran maintaining the peaceful nature of it programme. Since then, the Trump administration has beefed up pressure on Tehran, having imposed tougher sanctions.
Several unnamed US officials have told CNN that the Pentagon decided to deploy an aircraft carrier strike group to the Middle East last month after it allegedly turned out that Iranian officials were not taking the US warning seriously.
“It seems tensions have dropped some, but we are still watching very closely, we haven't relaxed, we remain vigilant”, one defence official was quoted as saying.
The insiders claimed that even though initial warning messages were sent to Iran through an unknown third party on 3 May, the Pentagon had some intelligence that Tehran was unfazed. Several days later the US publicly announced that it was dispatching military forces to the Gulf.
Trump Calls Iran “Terrorist Nation Number One”, Doesn't Rule Out Military Option
CNN additionally cited Gen. Joseph Dunford, chairman of the Joint Chiefs, as telling an audience at the Brookings Institution that after a purported threat of an attack emerged on 3 May, “we also saw in the intelligence that perhaps there was a question about the will and capability of the United States…
