BY OUR FOREIGN STAFF
THE world’s most powerful warship—fresh from the high-stakes capture of Venezuelan tyrant Nicolás Maduro—is steaming toward the Persian Gulf in a “don’t mess with us” message to Iran.
The USS Gerald R. Ford, a £10 billion nuclear-powered beast, has been ordered to quit the Caribbean and race to the Middle East as tensions with the Tehran regime reach a boiling point.
It comes just weeks after the carrier played a “crucial” role in the daring January raid on Caracas.
The Ford’s elite helicopter squadrons provided the muscle for the Delta Force teams that swooped into the Venezuelan capital to snatch Maduro from his hideout.
Double Trouble
Now, the “Maduro Hunter” is set to join the USS Abraham Lincoln in a massive show of naval force.
It marks a dramatic escalation in President Trump’s “maximum pressure” campaign against the Mullahs.
One US official warned:
”The message is clear. If we can pluck a dictator from his palace in the dead of night, we can reach anyone, anywhere.”
Military insiders say the deployment of a second carrier strike group effectively puts a “ring of steel” around the Strait of Hormuz.
The Ford, which carries more than 75 aircraft and the latest stealth technology, is expected to arrive in the region within days.
The move follows a series of provocative skirmishes in the Gulf, including a botched attempt by Iranian gunboats to seize a Western tanker earlier this month.
White House sources say the President is “not bluffing” and wants a “massive armada” in place to force Iran back to the negotiating table—or face the same fate as the fallen Venezuelan leader.
