DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Two Iranian-backed militias in the Middle East are showing a willingness to launch new attacks, possibly trying to support Iran, as officials acknowledged Monday the arrival of a U.S. aircraft carrier in the region. President Donald Trump ordered carriers to move to the Middle East as he threatened military action over a nationwide crackdown on protests.
Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi rebels suggested on Monday they were ready to resume attacks on ships in the Red Sea. This came just after Iraq’s Kataib Hezbollah paramilitary group, long supported by Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard, issued a direct threat late Sunday against any attack targeting Iran, warning that “all-out war” in the region would be the result.
The statements came as the entire region is mired in a tense waiting game to see if Trump will strike. Kataib Hezbollah backed out of Israel’s 12-day war against Iran in June, in which the United States bombed Iranian nuclear sites while the Houthis fired missiles at Israel during that time.
The reluctance to fully engage shows the disarray still plaguing Iran’s self-described “Axis of Resistance” after facing Israeli attacks during its war against Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
The American carrier arrives in the region
The threats came as the USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier and other guided-missile destroyers from its strike group arrived in the region to “promote regional security and stability,” US Central Command said on social media on Monday.
Trump said the ships are being moved “in case” he decides to take action against Iran. He has already established two red lines for attack – the killing of peaceful protesters and Tehran carrying out mass executions of those it arrests in a massive crackdown on demonstrations.
A senior Iranian military official who spoke anonymously on Iran’s state television dismissed the US threat as “an exaggeration” and noted that Iran has increased its military presence in response. The official added that Lincoln’s presence was not a deterrent, but an accessible target.
Threats from Iraq, Yemen, while Hezbollah remains mum
Iran has projected its power in the Middle East through the “Axis of Resistance,” a network of proxy militant groups in Gaza, Lebanon, Yemen, Syria and Iraq, and elsewhere. It was also seen as a defensive buffer, meant to keep the conflict away from Iran’s borders. But it collapsed after Israel targeted Hamas, Lebanon’s Hezbollah and others during the Gaza war. Meanwhile, rebels in 2024 toppled Syria’s Bashar Assad after years of bloody war in which Iran supported his rule.
The Lebanese militant group Hezbollah, one of Iran’s staunchest allies, has declined to say how it plans to respond in the event of a possible attack.
“Over the past two months, several parties have asked me a clear and honest question: If Israel and America go to war against Iran, will Hezbollah intervene or not?” Hezbollah leader Sheikh Naim Kassem said in a video address to thousands of supporters gathered in Beirut’s southern suburbs for a rally supporting Iran.
He said the group was preparing for “possible aggression and is determined to defend itself” against it. But on how he will act, he said, “those details will be determined by the struggle, and we will determine them according to the interests that are present.”
Iraqi and Yemeni militant groups have been much more direct in their threats, which have been interpreted as support for Iran. A short video made by the Houthis included images of a burning ship with the caption: “Coming soon”. It later released footage on Monday of the January 2024 attack in the Gulf of Aden on the Marshall Islands-flagged Marlin Luanda oil tanker, one of more than 100 ships attacked in a campaign the Houthis said pressured Israel for its war against Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
The Houthis halted their fire after a cease-fire in Gaza, although they have repeatedly warned they could fire again if necessary.
Meanwhile, Ahmad “Abu Hussein” al-Hamidawi of Kataib Hezbollah issued his own threat in a statement.
“We affirm to the enemies that the war against the (Islamic) Republic will not be a picnic, but rather, you will taste the bitterest forms of death and nothing will remain of you in our region,” he said.
The United Arab Emirates announced on Monday that it will not allow its airspace, territory or territorial waters to be used for military action against Iran. The UAE has said it will step up diplomatic dialogue and resolutions.
Iran warns America not to attack
Iranian Defense Ministry spokesman General Reza Talaei-Nik renewed warnings to both Israel and the US on Monday, saying any attack would be “met with a response that is more painful and decisive than in the past”. Iranian state television quoted Talaei-Nik as saying the threats required Iran to “maintain full and comprehensive readiness.”
Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmail Baghaei told reporters separately: “Regional countries are fully aware that any security breach in the region will not only affect Iran. The lack of security is contagious.”
Iran unveiled a new banner in Tehran’s Enghelab Square over the weekend that threatens Lincoln, showing a corpse-strewn and blood-spattered aircraft carrier with the warning: “If you sow the wind, you will reap the whirlwind.” However, Iran is still reeling from the 12-day war in June, in which its air defense systems were largely destroyed, top military leaders killed and its nuclear enrichment sites bombed by the US.
In a sign of concern over its airspace, Iran on Sunday issued a notice to pilots banning small private aircraft from flying into the country, with exceptions for the oil industry and emergency medical flights.
Many Western airlines have begun to avoid Iranian airspace entirely because of the tensions, although Gulf Arab carriers flying to Moscow still rely on the route. Iranian air defense forces shot down a Ukrainian commercial airliner in 2020, killing 176 people on board.
Death toll rises due to crackdown on protests
Protests in Iran began on December 28, triggered by the fall of the Iranian currency, the rial, and quickly spread across the country. They were met by a violent crackdown by the Iranian theocracy, the extent of which is only beginning to become clear as the country faced an internet blackout for more than two weeks – the most comprehensive in its history.
The US-based Human Rights Activists news agency put the death toll at 5,973 on Monday, with the number expected to rise. More than 41,813 people are said to have been arrested.
The group’s figures have been accurate in previous unrest and rely on a network of activists in Iran to verify deaths. The death toll exceeds that of any other round of protests or unrest there in decades and is reminiscent of the chaos surrounding Iran’s 1979 Islamic Revolution. The Associated Press could not independently verify the charge.
The Iranian government put the death toll at 3,117, saying 2,427 were civilians and security forces and labeling the rest as “terrorists”. In the past, the Iranian theocracy has underestimated or underreported deaths from unrest.
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Associated Press writer Abby Sewell in Beirut contributed to this report.
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This story has been corrected to note that the Houthis fired rockets at Israel during the 12-day war last June.