US Iran war LIVE updates: US deploys third military aircraft carrier in Gulf waters amid Hormuz tensions
US Iran war LIVE updates: CENTCOM posted on X stating the USS George HW Bush has been deployed in the Indian ocean
US Iran war LIVE updates: The US military has deployed third aircraft carrier, the USS George HW Bush, to the Middle East in the Indian Ocean. This buildup comes amid a fragile ceasefire that has paused the US-Israeli attacks against Iran. At the same time, US President Donald Trump announced that Israel and Lebanon have agreed to extend their ceasefire by three weeks following talks in Washington.
Trump also ruled out the use of nuclear weapons against Iran, stating that the US has already weakened Iran’s military through conventional means. He warned that any rearmament by Iran during the ceasefire could be quickly neutralised.
US deploys third carrier near middle east
US military on Thursday confirmed that USS George HW Bush aircraft carrier has arrived in the Middle East, bringing the number of the massive American warships operating in the region to three.
The Bush was sailing “in the Indian Ocean in the US Central Command area of responsibility, April 23,” the military command responsible for the Middle East said in a post on X. The post also had an image of the carrier with its deck packed with warplanes.
A second carrier, the USS Gerald R. Ford, was operating in the Red Sea on Thursday, while a third carrier, the USS Abraham Lincoln, is also in the region.
The deployment of the third aircraft carrier to the Middle East comes during a more than two-week ceasefire that paused the devastating US-Israeli air campaign against Iran that was launched in late February.
Israel Lebanon extends ceasefire
US President Donald Trump on Thursday announced that Israel and Lebanon have agreed to extend a ceasefire between by three weeks after talks at the White House.
Trump said the meeting between the Israeli and Lebanese ambassadors to the United States, the second in the past week, went “very well,” but during an Oval Office gathering he acknowledged that “they do have Hezbollah to think about.”
Trump rules out using nuclear weapons on Iran
Trump on Thursday said that he would not use a nuclear weapon in the war against Iran. Talking to the reporters at White House he said, “Why would I use a nuclear weapon? We’ve totally, in a very conventional way, decimated them without it.”
US President also added that nuclear weapon should never be allowed to be used by anybody. When asked how long he was willing to wait for a long-term peace deal with Iran, Trump said, “Don’t rush me.”
Trump says ‘could knock out’ Iran’s weaponry
Trump said Iran might have loaded up their weaponry “a little bit” during the two-week ceasefire, but added that the U.S. military could knock that out in about one day.
“Their navy is gone. Their air force is gone, their anti-aircraft is gone …maybe they loaded up a little bit during the two-week hiatus, but we’ll knock that out about one day, if they did,” Trump added.
Meanwhile, prospective peace talks in Pakistan were hanging in the balance, with no sign of a return to diplomacy to end a standoff in the Strait of Hormuz. Second round of talks could not take off as Iran refused to attend the negotiations in Pakistan over its demands, including insistence on nuclear rights.
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Trump also ruled out the use of nuclear weapons against Iran, stating that the US has already weakened Iran’s military through conventional means. He warned that any rearmament by Iran during the ceasefire could be quickly neutralised.
US deploys third carrier near middle east
US military on Thursday confirmed that USS George HW Bush aircraft carrier has arrived in the Middle East, bringing the number of the massive American warships operating in the region to three.
The Bush was sailing “in the Indian Ocean in the US Central Command area of responsibility, April 23,” the military command responsible for the Middle East said in a post on X. The post also had an image of the carrier with its deck packed with warplanes.
A second carrier, the USS Gerald R. Ford, was operating in the Red Sea on Thursday, while a third carrier, the USS Abraham Lincoln, is also in the region.
The deployment of the third aircraft carrier to the Middle East comes during a more than two-week ceasefire that paused the devastating US-Israeli air campaign against Iran that was launched in late February.
Israel Lebanon extends ceasefire
US President Donald Trump on Thursday announced that Israel and Lebanon have agreed to extend a ceasefire between by three weeks after talks at the White House.
Trump said the meeting between the Israeli and Lebanese ambassadors to the United States, the second in the past week, went “very well,” but during an Oval Office gathering he acknowledged that “they do have Hezbollah to think about.”
Trump rules out using nuclear weapons on Iran
Trump on Thursday said that he would not use a nuclear weapon in the war against Iran. Talking to the reporters at White House he said, “Why would I use a nuclear weapon? We’ve totally, in a very conventional way, decimated them without it.”
US President also added that nuclear weapon should never be allowed to be used by anybody. When asked how long he was willing to wait for a long-term peace deal with Iran, Trump said, “Don’t rush me.”
Trump says ‘could knock out’ Iran’s weaponry
Trump said Iran might have loaded up their weaponry “a little bit” during the two-week ceasefire, but added that the U.S. military could knock that out in about one day.
“Their navy is gone. Their air force is gone, their anti-aircraft is gone …maybe they loaded up a little bit during the two-week hiatus, but we’ll knock that out about one day, if they did,” Trump added.
Meanwhile, prospective peace talks in Pakistan were hanging in the balance, with no sign of a return to diplomacy to end a standoff in the Strait of Hormuz. Second round of talks could not take off as Iran refused to attend the negotiations in Pakistan over its demands, including insistence on nuclear rights.
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Apr 24, 2026 7:48:14 AM IST
US Iran war LIVE updates: Italy dismisses replacing Iran at the World Cup after suggestion by US official
US Iran war LIVE updates: Italian sports officials say four-time champion Italy is not interested in replacing Iran at the upcoming World Cup following a suggestion to that effect by a Trump administration official.
The Financial Times reported that Paolo Zampolli, the US special envoy for global partnerships, had suggested the swap to President Donald Trump and FIFA president Gianni Infantino.
Apr 24, 2026 7:37:23 AM IST
US Iran war LIVE updates: Oil prices rise with no progress on Iran
US Iran war LIVE updates: Crude oil rose for a fifth straight day as concerns grew that the US and Iran were making little progress toward resuming talks on de-escalation, keeping the Strait of Hormuz effectively closed.
Brent, the global crude benchmark, rose 1.5% to above $106.50 a barrel, Bloomberg reported.
Apr 24, 2026 7:31:03 AM IST
US Iran war LIVE updates: Iran fast-boat swarms adds to Hormuz threats on shipping
US Iran war LIVE updates: Iran’s use of a swarm of small, fast boats to seize two container ships near the Strait of Hormuz could undermine suggestions US forces have disabled its naval threat and reveals the challenges facing reopening one of the world’s most important oil export routes.
US President Donald Trump on Monday acknowledged that while Iran’s conventional navy had been largely destroyed, its “fast-attack ships” had not been considered much of a threat.
Apr 24, 2026 7:21:01 AM IST
US Iran war LIVE updates: Lebanon-Israel ceasefire extended by three weeks after Oval Office meeting
US Iran war LIVE updates: Lebanon and Israel extended their ceasefire for three weeks after a high-level meeting at the White House, US President Donald Trump said on Thursday.
Trump hosted Israel’s ambassador to Washington Yechiel Leiter and Lebanese ambassador to the U.S. Nada Moawad in the Oval Office for a second round of U.S.-facilitated talks, a day after Israeli strikes killed at least five people including a journalist. “The Meeting went very well! The United States is going to work with Lebanon in order to help it protect itself from Hezbollah,” Trump wrote on Truth Social.
Apr 24, 2026 7:11:03 AM IST
US Iran war LIVE updates: Mojtaba in touch with Iranian regime via letters, says report
US Iran war LIVE updates: Iran’s new Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei, has been somewhat missing from the public sphere ever since he took charge as the country’s top leader. Mojtaba is consciously as he does not want to appear vulnerable or sound weak in his first public address, the New York Times reported quoting an Iranian official.
According to the report, to avoid being tracked down by US and Israel, messages to Mojtaba are handwritten, sealed in envelopes and passed on via a human chain from one trusted courier to the next, who travel on highways and back roads, in cars and on motorcycles until they reach his hide-out.
Apr 24, 2026 7:06:09 AM IST
US Iran war LIVE updates: US says Iran allowed to play in World Cup but people with ties to IRGC won’t be allowed
US Iran war LIVE updates: US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on Thursday Washington had no objections to Iranian players participating in the 2026 FIFA World Cup but he added the players will not be allowed to bring with them people with ties to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).
“Nothing from the U.S. has told them they can’t come,” Rubio told reporters. President Donald Trump also said his administration “would not want to affect the athletes” in comments he made at the White House.
Apr 24, 2026 6:54:48 AM IST
US Iran war LIVE updates: Iran seizes vessel in Hormuz, defying US naval superiority
US Iran war LIVE updates: Iran flaunted its tightened grip over the Strait of Hormuz on Thursday with a video of commandos in a speedboat storming a huge cargo ship, after the collapse of peace talks that Washington had hoped would open one of the world’s most important shipping corridors.
US President Donald Trump dismissed the threat posed by Iran’s “little wise-guy ships” and told reporters that he believed Tehran wanted to make a deal but that its leadership was in turmoil.
Apr 24, 2026 6:53:33 AM IST
US Iran war LIVE updates: Trump orders to ‘shoot and kill’ Iranian small boats choking Hormuz
US Iran war LIVE updates: President Donald Trump has ordered the US military to “shoot and kill” small Iranian boats that deploy mines in the Strait of Hormuz, announcing the move Thursday a day after Iran again displayed its ability to thwart traffic through the channel.
“I have ordered the United States Navy to shoot and kill any boat, small boats though they may be … putting mines in the waters of the Strait of Hormuz,” Trump posted, adding that U.S. minesweepers “are clearing the Strait right now.”
Apr 24, 2026 6:39:38 AM IST
US Iran war LIVE updates: USS George HW Bush aircraft carrier deployed in Mideast region
US Iran war LIVE updates: The USS George HW Bush aircraft carrier has arrived in the Middle East, the US military said Thursday, bringing the number of the massive American warships operating in the region to three.
The Bush was sailing “in the Indian Ocean in the US Central Command area of responsibility, April 23,” the military command responsible for the Middle East said in a post on X that included an image of the carrier with its deck packed with warplanes.