US Sends Third Aircraft Carrier and 2,000 Marines Toward Iran

The United States is sending a third US aircraft carrier toward Iran, a US official told Al Jazeera on Friday, as the war enters its eighth month and both sides weigh escalation and diplomatic engagement.

The USS Theodore Roosevelt carrier strike group left its San Diego base on Sunday, September 27, bound for the region, followed a day later by the Makin Island Marine Expeditionary Force, carrying more than 2,000 Marines. By the end of November, the official said, three aircraft carriers and two amphibious landing groups will be positioned around Iran.

FAKTA: US military buildup near Iran

• Deployed: USS Theodore Roosevelt carrier strike group — departed San Diego on September 27, 2026.
• Accompanying: Makin Island Amphibious Ready Group with the 13th Marine Expeditionary Unit — departed September 28 with more than 2,000 Marines.
• Target concentration: three aircraft carriers and two amphibious groups around Iran by the end of November, per a US official.
• Air power: extra air power including F-35 fighter jets, layered on top of roughly 50,000 US service members already in the region, according to Al Jazeera’s Tanya Noury reporting from Washington.
• Diplomacy: Iran’s seven-day roadmap, conveyed through Qatar, was rejected by US President Donald Trump.

Roosevelt sailed quietly from San Diego

USNI News tracking, reported in The War Zone’s weekly carrier tracker (read the full tracker here), shows the Roosevelt departed San Diego Bay on Sunday morning, September 27 — the first such deployment expected to last more than seven months.

The supercarrier keyed its AIS transponder on at 9:10 a.m. Pacific time and got underway less than 20 minutes later, before going dark roughly three hours after departing. The three-ship Makin Island group followed the carrier’s path out of the harbor the next day. As is common with West Coast deployments, the Navy did not publicly announce either sailing.

The USS Makin Island amphibious ready group, carrying more than 2,000 Marines of the 13th Marine Expeditionary Unit, departed San Diego a day after the USS Theodore Roosevelt. (Image: U.S. Navy / Watan News)

Options kept “on the table” as midterms near

Al Jazeera’s Tanya Noury, reporting from Washington, said the goal — citing sources inside the Pentagon and the White House — is to keep military options “on the table” for Trump regardless of how diplomacy unfolds, with the Pentagon not planning to withdraw any assets even if an agreement with Iran is reached.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has said forces are “ready to go” should Trump order new strikes. Trump himself has kept the threat alive in public: he told Fox News he believes the US is “going to win the war” with Iran “very soon”, while suggesting in other remarks that a return to military action “is possible” — something he would rather not spell out before November’s midterm elections.

Sanctions tighten as Iran’s currency hits record low

Washington has paired the show of force with new economic pressure, sanctioning Iran’s rail and automotive conglomerates this week. The Treasury Department called the new measures an effort to drain what remains of Tehran’s revenue.

The pressure is biting: Iran’s rial hit a fresh record low of 2.5 million to the dollar this week. Iran’s acting defense ministry chief, Majid Ebn-e-Reza, pushed back Thursday against US claims that Iran’s defense industry has been destroyed, writing on X that the claims “change nothing” and that Iran’s capabilities remain intact.

Iran says it came to New York to “forge peace”

Parallel to the military buildup, Iran has pushed a seven-day roadmap conveyed through Qatar that would see it reopen the Strait of Hormuz and resume nuclear talks in exchange for an end to the US naval blockade, sanctions relief and a regional ceasefire covering Lebanon and Yemen.

The plan was rejected by Trump. US Ambassador to the UN Mike Waltz told NBC the demand for frozen funds and sanctions relief was non-negotiable, noting that “these aren’t just the United States’ sanctions … these are global sanctions.”

Iran’s response has been two-pronged. Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi told NBC that Tehran was “fully prepared” to resume the war, before writing on X: “we did not come to New York to sell a war. We came to forge peace.” At home, the mood is shifting: an AP-NORC poll found nearly 70 percent of Americans now say the war has not been worth fighting.

Read more on Watan News: Trump’s ultimatum to Iran — “blow up or make a deal”