The US military is replacing its B-2 bombers with B-52s at a base in the Indo-Pacific that was seen as being in an ideal location to operate in the Middle East, Reuters reported on Monday citing US officials.
The Pentagon deployed as many as six B-2 bombers in March to a US-British military base on the Indian Ocean island of Diego Garcia, amid a US bombing campaign in Yemen and mounting tensions with Iran.
Experts say that this had put the B-2s, which have stealth technology and are equipped to carry the heaviest US bombs and nuclear weapons, in a position to operate in the Middle East.
US President Donald Trump announced last week that a deal had been reached to stop bombing Yemen's Houthi group.
The B-2 bombers had been used to carry out strikes against the Iran-backed group.
Hezbollah has asked Iran to withdraw officers from its Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) currently based in Lebanon following growing fears over potential Israeli assassination attempts, Al Arabiya reported on Monday.
According to regional sources cited by Al Arabiya and Al Hadath, the Lebanese armed group, closely aligned with Tehran, is monitoring ongoing nuclear negotiations between Iran and the United States in Oman.
Hezbollah apparently fears that any Israeli strike targeting IRGC personnel could derail the talks and put Iran in a difficult diplomatic position, according to the report.
“Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is expected to use every possible means to pressure Tehran and obstruct its nuclear progress,” the sources said, suggesting that any high-profile Iranian casualty in Lebanon could serve as a pretext for escalation.
IRGC officers are believed to reside in discreet locations in Beirut’s southern suburbs and in the Bekaa Valley, and typically move under strict security protocols.
Israeli intelligence has previously succeeded in targeting IRGC-linked figures and Hezbollah commanders during recent conflicts in Lebanon.
Neither Hezbollah nor Iranian officials have publicly confirmed the reported withdrawal request.
Last year, seven senior IRGC commanders and officials were killed in an Israeli strike on the Iranian consulate complex in Damascus, triggering Iran's first ever direct airstrike on the Jewish state.
Israeli media reported a Houthi missile was intercepted en-route to the Jewish state as the Iran-backed group continues its almost daily attacks.
Israel's Y-Net reported that it had been intercepted before reaching Israeli territory, the latest in an ongoing air operation from the Houthis in Yemen.
On Sunday, Israel attacked Hodeidah in Yemen after the Israeli army said it had warned residents of three ports under Houthi control to evacuate, according to the Houthi interior ministry.
Last week, the Houthis, listed as a terrorist organization by countries including the US, fired a ballistic missile which narrowly missed Israel’s main airport after multiple interception attempts failed.
The Houthis announced a ban on “air navigation to the airports of occupied Palestine” following the strike which landed just meters from Ben-Gurion Airport in central Israel.
Since the Gaza war began, dozens of strikes have been launched by Yemen, with scores of drones and missiles fired at the Jewish state.
Following the maritime blockade of the Red Sea region enacted by the Houthis, in a bid to force Israel into a ceasefire with Iran-backed Hamas in Gaza, the US had led a more than 20-nation coalition against the group.
In a shock move last week, US President Donald Trump agreed to an Oman-brokered ceasefire after having escalated attacks on the Houthis in March.
The Houthis had launched at least 174 attacks on the US Navy and 145 attacks on global shipping, according to the US State Department.
However, the deal did not encompass the group's attacks on Israel.
In Israel, the ceasefire has left members of the political and military elite on edge.
"This was totally unexpected," one security source told Iran International on condition of anonymity. "Everyone is very much watching and waiting to see what comes next, but it leaves us in a much weaker position."
Another said: "We have no choice but to take tougher action now to show that even standing alone, we will not allow the Houthis to threaten the safety of Israel."
New satellite imagery shows two US B-52 bombers deployed at the Diego Garcia airbase in the Indian Ocean, reinforcing Washington’s long-range strike posture near Iran as nuclear talks remain postponed, Newsweek reported Thursday.
The image, captured by the European Space Agency’s Sentinel-2 satellite on May 7, was first identified by open-source analyst MT Anderson and shows aircraft matching the dimensions of B-52 bombers parked at the US Naval Support Facility.
The B-52s join a buildup of US assets at the base, including previously deployed B-2 stealth bombers, C-17 cargo planes, and aerial refueling tankers, according to Air & Space Forces Magazine and The War Zone.
The enhanced deployment follows months of rising tensions between Washington and Tehran. While US President Donald Trump has said he prefers a peaceful resolution to the standoff over Iran’s nuclear program, he has also warned of military action if no agreement is reached.
Tehran has rejected talks outside the framework of the 2015 nuclear deal.
In March, a senior Iranian military official warned that Iran would target the joint US-UK base on Diego Garcia if it is used to launch attacks. “There will be no distinction in targeting British or American forces if Iran is attacked from any base in the region or within range of Iranian missiles,” the official told The Telegraph.
However, the remote Indian Ocean base is located some 3,800 kilometers from Iran—beyond the estimated 2,000-kilometer range of Iranian ballistic missiles.
A UK government spokesman condemned the threats at the time, calling the base “vital to UK and US security” and underscoring London’s efforts to promote de-escalation in the region.
Diego Garcia has previously been used to launch US strikes in Iraq and Afghanistan. The latest deployments suggest the US is positioning for potential large-scale operations, even as diplomatic efforts with Tehran remain uncertain.
The former Iranian ambassador to Afghanistan has suggested that the recent escalation of tensions between India and Pakistan is part of a US and Israeli plot to reshape the geopolitical map of the region.
Abolfazl Zohrevand, also a member of the Iranian parliament's National Security Committee, told Rouydad 24 news website that the "extremist current" in India had been ensnared in a trap set by the US and Israel, with the aim of destabilizing the region.
"The conflict between Islamabad and New Delhi is one of the schemes orchestrated by the US and Israel to reshape the region's geopolitics, a move that could have catastrophic consequences for the subcontinent, South and Central Asia, especially China," he said.
Zohrevand's comments follow the most serious clashes between the nuclear-armed neighbors since 2019, India claiming strikes on what it called "terrorist infrastructure" inside Pakistan, and Pakistan announcing it shot down five Indian fighter jets in response.
The lawmaker stressed that Tehran will not take sides in the conflict that has seen heavy exchanges of fire along the Kashmir Line of Control.
"Iran has played an important role in maintaining the geopolitical map of the region, and in this episode, it will also try to prevent this tension from escalating and going astray," Zohrevand said.
India has long been a key trade partner for Iran, although last year, an Iranian trade official admitted that trade with India dropped by up to a third due to global sanctions.
However, relations with Pakistan have been more fragile. Last year, Iran and Pakistan engaged in tit-for-tat attacks which both sides said were targeting terrorist hideouts on the borders.
Earlier on Wednesday, Foreign Ministry Spokesman Esmail Baghai voiced deep concerns regarding the heightened tensions, urging both India and Pakistan to show restraint.
An apparent truce to a blazing Yemen front in Iran's regionwide confrontation with Israel and the United States could deal a fillip to flagging Iran-US talks that had been dogged by the uptick in fighting.
US President Donald Trump made the shock announcement in the White House on Tuesday that he was calling off a bombing campaign on Yemen's Houthis after the Iran-backed group "capitulated" by agreeing to halt attacks on shipping.
Oman said on Tuesday it was mediating a Houthi-US ceasefire deal, but adding to the fog of war, Mohammed al-Bukhaiti was quoted by Bloomberg as saying after Trump's announcement that it would continue its campaign until Israel halts attacks on Gaza.
Tehran and Washington have signaled continued commitment to nuclear negotiations but stepped-up combat between the Iran-backed Houthis in Yemen and Israel had cast a shadow over the diplomatic efforts.
The Houthis pierced Israel's air defenses to land a ballistic missile near Israel's main airport on Saturday and Israeli fighter jets attacked Yemen's main port on Monday and airport on Tuesday along with power plants and a factory.
"Our choice of when to respond, how to respond, and on what targets to respond - this is a consideration we make every time," Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Tuesday.
"And this also concerns the patron of the Houthis - Iran, without whose approval and their long-term support, the Houthis cannot carry out their criminal missile attack."
The uptick in violence suggests the religious militia and perhaps its backers in Tehran are not deterred despite the painful blows Israel has meted out to Iran and its armed affiliates in over a year of regional fighting.
Before the Ben Gurion airport attack, US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth also warned of unspecified payback for Tehran, citing its continued support for the Houthis despite an explicit warning from President Trump that they desist support or face attack.
Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei has long rejected the notion that groups like the Houthis act at Iran’s direction. “The Islamic Republic does not have proxies. Yemen is fighting because of its faith,” he said in a December 2024 speech.
In a letter to the United Nations on Monday, Iran's UN ambassador Saeid Iravani rejected allegations of complicity in the Houthi attack on the airport, warning that “the United States and the Israeli regime will bear full and unequivocal responsibility for all consequences” arising from any aggression on the Islamic Republic.
The future of Iran-US indirect talks currently hangs in the balance after a fourth round is due to be held in Oman over the weekend after they were delayed by a week for unclear reasons.
Hardline Iranian media and officials, including the IRGC-linked Javan newspaper, praise the Houthis for their anti-Israeli and anti-American positions. “Ansarullah's missiles on Ben Gurion shook Israel’s psychological security,” Ali Shamkhani, a Khamenei advisor, wrote Tuesday on X.
“The attack from Sanaa was a strategic blow to the delusion of the Resistance’s collapse — a front that now holds the initiative, with an ever-growing presence from Lebanon and Gaza to Iraq and Sanaa,” he wrote.
Yet, the strike's timing has led some commentators to posit that that factions within Iran may be actively undermining diplomatic progress.
Iranian-Canadian analyst Shahir Shahidsaless raised the question directly: “Is the hardline faction of the Iranian government once again trying to sabotage and disrupt the talks?” he posted on X.
Even some conservatives have acknowledged that the timing of the strike could be damaging to the US talks. Military analyst Behzad Atabaki, writing on a Telegram channel, argued that Iran should have at least called for a pause in Houthi attacks during the negotiation period. “Maybe it’s too late, maybe not,” he said.
