Pentagon: U.S. 'strengthening' military force posture in Middle East amid soaring tensions

Aug. 12 (UPI) -- The Pentagon said it was "strengthening" its force posture in the Middle East, deploying a guided missile submarine and hastening the transit of a carrier strike group to the region amid soaring fears that an Iranian retaliatory attack will widen the ongoing Hamas -Israel war.

Pentagon press secretary Maj. Gen. Pat Ryder said in a statement Sunday night that Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin had spoken over the phone with his Israeli counterpart, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, reiterating the U.S. commitment "to take every possible step to defend Israel."

The call was made amid heightened anticipation of an Iranian attack on Israel.

Tehran has vowed to hit Israel after last month's assassination of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in the Iranian capital. Though both Hamas and Iran hold Israel, Israel has yet to comment.

Iran and Israel have been in a proxy war for years that exploded into the open Oct. 7 when Tehran-backed Hamas killed 1,200 Israelis and took another 250 hostage. Israel has responded by razing much of the Palestinian enclave of Gaza that Hamas governs, resulting in nearly 40,000 dead Palestinians as it hunts Hamas' leadership and searches for hostages.

Israel has vowed to dismantle Hamas as one of its conditions to end the war, and a day before Haniyeh was killed, it assassinated Fuad Shukr, a commander Hezbollah , another Iran-backed militia.

As the Middle East sits in anticipation of an Iran retaliatory strike, the United States and its allies have been pushing for Israel and Hamas to complete a cease-fire agreement they've been working on for months. A halt in the fighting is being widely seen as the best way to simmer tensions and an Iranian strike on Israel highly likely to thwart that attempt.

Austin and Gallant discussed the "importance" of mitigating civilian harm and achieve progress toward securing a cease-fire, Ryder said.

He told Gallant of the Biden administration's moves to strengthen the U.S. military posture capabilities throughout the Middle East due to the escalating regional tensions, and said he has ordered the USS Georgia guided missile submarine to the Central Command region.

Last week, the Pentagon announced that it ordered the USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier strike group to replace the USS Theodore Roosevelt aircraft carrier strike group, which has been in the Middle East now for several weeks.

On Sunday, Austin told Gallant that the F-35C fighter jet-equipped carrier has been ordered to "accelerate its transit" to the Central Command area of responsibility, Ryder said.

The USS Abraham Lincoln said on X following the announcement that it "has heard the call."

According to a statement from the U.S. Navy, the USS Abraham Lincoln departed Naval Base Guam on Thursday following a four-day port call.