DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (Dispatches) — The U.S. Navy has deployed a guided-missile submarine capable of carrying up to 154 Tomahawk missiles to the Middle East, a spokesman said Saturday.
The Navy rarely acknowledges the location or deployment of submarines. Cmdr. Timothy Hawkins, a spokesman for the 5th Fleet based in the Persian Gulf nation of Bahrain, declined to comment on the submarine’s mission or what had prompted the deployment.
He said the nuclear-powered submarine, based out of Kings Bay, Georgia, passed through the Suez Canal on Friday. “It is capable of carrying up to 154 Tomahawk land-attack cruise missiles and is deployed to U.S. 5th Fleet to help ensure regional maritime security and stability,” Hawkins said.
The 5th Fleet loiters in the crucial Strait of Hormuz, the narrow mouth of the Persian Gulf through which 20% of all oil transits. Its region includes the Bab el-Mandeb Strait off Yemen and the Red Sea stretching up to the Suez Canal, the Egyptian waterway linking the Mideast to the Mediterranean Sea.
In the past, the U.S. Navy has been engaged in a series of tense encounters at sea with Iranian forces.
Last month, the U.S. launched airstrikes against Syria after a rocket attack killed a U.S. contractor and wounded seven other Americans in that country’s northeast.
U.S.-Iranian tensions have soared since then-President Donald Trump withdrew from a 2015 agreement with world powers that provided sanctions relief in return for Iran curbing its nuclear program and placing them under enhanced surveillance.
Tehran has sought improved relations with Russia and China, which

brokered an agreement last month to restore diplomatic ties between Iran and Saudi Arabia.
A former Iranian lawmaker has said no matter who likes it or not, Iran is at loggerheads with the United States and that explains its interaction with countries such as Russia and China.
Ahmad Ardestani told Rouydad24 website in Tehran that the Islamic Republic expected regional countries to recognize it as the guarantor of security in the region.
“Regardless of Iran’s attempts, regional countries shaped their attitude after the Islamic Revolution based on the United States’ view about the new Iran,” he said.
“Europe and the United States pushed Iran toward the East with their ‘maximum pressure policy’. Now Iran has strategic ties with Russia and China while it has failed to maintain a logical relationship with the West,” Ardestani said.
He said Saud Arabia as well as others in the region including Kuwait, Bahrain and the UAE have finally realized that instead of “bribing the United States” for protection, they should get closer to Tehran.
Ardestani said that both Saudi Arabia and Iran benefit from their recent agreement brokered by China, as this makes Riyadh immune to U.S. blackmails, and gives Tehran an opportunity to present itself as a confident and stable state.
He further characterized Iran and Saudi Arabia as the two wings that keep the region stable.