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To the deafening roar of war planes taking off from the nuclear-powered US aircraft carrier USS John C. Stennis, US military commanders insist that intimidating Iran is not part of their mission in the region.
The carrier and its battle group has been in the Gulf of Oman since February 19, anchored about 120 nautical miles off the coast of Pakistan, in what the US Navy says is a mission to provide support for ground forces operating in Afghanistan and Iraq.
The Stennis has joined the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower in the area, fuelling speculation that Washington could be preparing for a military strike against arch-foe Iran over its controversial nuclear programme.
But the carrier's commanding officer Captain Bradley E. Johanson said the vessel was in the region to reassure Washington's key oil-rich Arab allies in the Gulf Cooperation Council.
“We have received very explicit guidance that we will not assume any sort of escalatory posture with Iran,” Johanson told AFP as an F/A-18F Super Hornet took off heading north in the direction of Pakistan and Afghanistan.
On the flight deck, which is over 300 metres (yards) long, dozens of sailors worked non-stop to prepare for the take-off of the next fighter jet whose engine was roaring in anticipation.
“No sort of escalatory posture at all with Iran,” Johanson reiterated. “Our mission is not to go and intimidate Iran. Our mission is to go and make the GCC partner-nations comfortable with the security situation.”
However, US Defence Secretary Robert Gates said in January that reinforcing the US naval presence in the oil-rich region was a message to Iran, which has defied the international community over its nuclear drive.
Tehran last week failed to meet a UN Security Council deadline to freeze uranium enrichment, a process that is at the heart of Western fears it may be seeking to built atomic weapons, and risks further sanctions.
On Saturday, US Vice President Dick Cheney said that allowing Iran to acquire nuclear weapons would be a “serious mistake” and that all options remained on the table, in apparent reference to a possible use of force.
“The nice thing about my position is I don't have to explain what the Secretary of Defence said,” said Rear Admiral Kevin M. Quinn, commander of Carrier Strike Group Three, formed by the Stennis and its battle group.
“There was no word in my tasking to come over here that had anything to do with Iran,” he told AFP.
Iran, which has seen its regional influence soar since the US-led invasion of March 2003 that ousted Saddam Hussein's regime, has also played down the possibility of military action by the United States while boasting it could confront any attack.
The two nations have had hostile relations since the 1979 Islamic revolution ousted the US-backed shah and Tehran has been lumped by US President George W. Bush into his “axis of evil”.
Quinn said his mission was to support coalition operations in Afghanistan, where the Super Hornets made their first sorties on Friday following a series of exercises.
Stennis has about 3,000 sailors, plus 1,800 servicemen deployed exclusively in air operations.
Quinn however acknowledged that Washington's decision to dispatch a second carrier sent a message to the Gulf countries that stressed “the commitment that the US has to the security and stability of this entire region.”
“When you have this level of naval force, you are showing resolve and you are showing commitment, and… (that) your country can be counted on,” he added.
