01/17/2026
The Pentagon has redirected the USS Abraham Lincoln Carrier Strike Group from the South China Sea to the Middle East in a move driven by the accelerating internal unrest and protests within Iran, and the resultant killing by the regime of thousands of its people. It is expected to take a week for the Lincoln and its carrier strike group to reach the Middle East. The USS Abraham Lincoln (CVN-72), the fifth Nimitz-class nuclear-powered supercarrier, has been operating in the South China Sea and last week conducted live-fire exercises and a replenishment-at-sea as part of its ongoing routine operations since its deployment began in November. The Lincoln’s carrier strike group (CSG) includes the Arleigh Burke‑class guided‑missile destroyers USS Spruance (DDG 111), USS Michael Murphy (DDG-112), and USS Frank E. Petersen Jr. (DDG-121). A U.S. Navy fast-attack, nuclear-powered submarine typically operates with a CSG, but its identity usually is not disclosed for operational security. President Trump was encouraging the Iranian people to continue their protests and promised that the US would send help. Iranian authorities cracked down with indiscriminate killing of the protesters, with thousands dead. More than 600 protests have taken place across 187 of Iran’s cities, according to data from the U.S.-based Human Rights Activists News Agency on Thursday. The death toll has reached at least 2,615, it said, with 18,470 arrests. The Islamic Republic is still reeling from the 12-day war with Israel last June, where the US and Israel destroyed Iran’s nuclear facilities, while economic sanctions have crippled the economy. President Trump has softened his stance somewhat, saying that the Iranian authorities had halted killings and executions of protesters, citing “sources on the other side.” He stated on Wednesday that Washington would “watch and see,” which implies patience rather than imminent force. The assertion that executions were not planned, even if cautiously hedged, reduces the immediate humanitarian rationale for intervention. Iran’s ambassador to the United Nations has promised that the Iranian regime will defend itself against the United States and President Trump if the US tries to intervene militarily over the protests. “US fantasies and policy toward Iran are rooted in regime change, with sanctions, threats, engineered unrest, and chaos serving as the modus operandi to manufacture a pretext for military intervention,” the Iranians posted on social media. “This playbook has failed before. The Iranian people will defend their country — and, most assuredly, it will fail again.” An official letter addressed to UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and the President of the UN Security Council, Abukar Osman, was attached to Iran’s social media post. The letter slammed the US, which “explicitly encourages political destabilization, incites and invites violence, and threatens the sovereignty, territorial integrity, and national security of the Islamic Republic of Iran.” The US has ordered some personnel to leave US bases in the Middle East due to the increased tensions with Iran. The U.S. military is withdrawing some personnel from its largest Middle East air base in Qatar, while the Trump administration has urged Americans to leave Iran immediately.