Official

U.S. Sending Warning to Iran With Second Aircraft Carrier
Tuesday , January 23, 2007

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — A second U.S. aircraft carrier strike Group now steaming toward the Middle East is Washington's way of warning Iran to back down in its attempts to dominate the region, a top U.S. diplomat said here Tuesday.Nicholas Burns, the U.S. undersecretary of state for political affairs, ruled out direct U.S. negotiations with Iran and said a rapprochement between Washington and Tehran was "not possible" until Iran halts its enrichment of uranium.

"The Middle East isn't a region to be dominated by Iran. The Gulf isn't a body of water to be controlled by Iran. That's why we've seen the United States station two carrier battle groups in the region," Burns said in an address to the Dubai-based Gulf Research Center, an influential think-tank."Iran is going to have to understand that the United States will protect its interests if Iran seeks to confront us," Burns continued. "We will defend our interests if we are challenged. That might be a message Iran must understand."
The American aircraft carrier USS John C. Stennis and several accompanying ships are heading toward the Gulf to join an aircraft carrier group already in the region, the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower. The Stennis is expected to arrive in late February.The Stennis' arrival in the Middle East will mark the first time since the U.S.-led Iraq invasion in 2003 that the United States has had two carrier battle groups in the region.