The U.S will continue to maintain a significant military force presence in the Middle East, White House national security spokesman John Kirby said on Wednesday.
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Kirby also said that Washington had no indication that Israel was behind the explosions in Iran that killed over 200 people in an event to commemorate slain IRGC senior member Qassem Soleimani, who was killed in a U.S. attack in 2020.
He said Hamas still maintained significant capabilities after nearly three months of war waged by Israel but added that the IDF would succeed in reducing the terror group's abilities to launch terror attacks on Israeli territory, although the ideology could not be eliminated.
Meanwhile Secretary of State Antony Blinken is scheduled to arrive in Israel on Monday after he postponed his arrival scheduled for Thursday. Sources claimed his travel plans were not altered in the wake of the killing in Beirut of senior Hamas member Saleh al-Aroury on Tuesday, in an explosion attributed to Israel, and were the result of "technical issues only."
The U.S. announced on Sunday that it was moving the Navy's USS Gerald Ford carrier fleet out of the Mediterranean where it was deployed soon after the October 7 Hamas massacre in Southern Israel
A senior American official said that the return of the USS Gerald Ford to its base in Norfolk, Virginian is consistent with its deployment schedule and even after it departs the area, the U.S. would still have a multitude of military capabilities and the flexibility to respond to any need, including with its warships and missiles deployed to the Mediterranean and the Red Sea