The U.S. is sending the world’s largest aircraft carrier to the Middle East, joining the USS Abraham Lincoln and its strike group already positioned in the U.S. Central Command (Centcom) area, as tensions between Washington and Tehran ratchet up.

Add Yahoo as a preferred source to see more of our stories on Google. This photo provided by the U.S. Navy shows sailors fueling an MH-60R Sea Hawk helicopter on the flight deck of the Nimitz-class aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln in the Indian Ocean ...

Amid ongoing diplomatic efforts, the Pentagon has ordered the USS Gerald R Ford Carrier Strike Group to leave the Caribbean and redeploy to the Middle East, according to two US officials familiar with the decision. The Ford will join the USS Abraham Lincoln carrier group already operating in the region.

The United States plans to deploy the USS Gerald R. Ford to the Middle East, joining another aircraft carrier already in the region. This move aims to bolster US pressure on Iran concerning its nuclear program.

The US military is continuing a significant buildup of air and naval assets in the Middle East as negotiations over a deal with Iran continued with talks in Geneva on Tuesday. The pieces are being moved into place both to pressure Tehran as terms of a deal are discussed and to have options to strike inside the country should negotiations over its nuclear program fail,