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US Withdraws Aircraft Carrier Eisenhower from Red Sea

Aircraft carrier USS Dwight D. Eisenhower (AFP)
Aircraft carrier USS Dwight D. Eisenhower (AFP)
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US Withdraws Aircraft Carrier Eisenhower from Red Sea

Aircraft carrier USS Dwight D. Eisenhower (AFP)
Aircraft carrier USS Dwight D. Eisenhower (AFP)

The US military said it has withdrawn aircraft carrier USS Dwight D. Eisenhower from the Red Sea following a deployment lasting several months in response to the large-scale attack on Israel by the Palestinian Hamas Movement.

The US Regional Command for the Middle East (Centcom) said on Saturday that the carrier and its strike group are on their way back to the US.

The Eisenhower will be replaced by the aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt and its convoy, which the US military said is still in the Indo-Pacific and is scheduled to arrive to the Middle East next week.

Pentagon spokesman Pat Ryder said that for more than seven months, the Eisenhower and its convoy protected ships traveling through the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden and was involved in the rescue of sailors and in deterring the Houthi militia in Yemen.

The Houthis have been targeting ships bound for Israeli ports or those owned by Israeli companies in the Red and Arabian seas and Indian Ocean for months, in what they say is retaliation for Israeli attacks in the Gaza Strip.

The militia also attacked US and British ships off Yemen after the two countries began launching strikes on areas under the group’s control.

The United States, Britain and other Western countries have launched operations to protect ships in the region.

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Russia Condemns ‘Irresponsible’ Talk of Nuclear Weapons for Ukraine

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov attends a press conference of Russian President Vladimir Putin speaks at the BRICS summit in Kazan, Russia October 24, 2024. (Reuters)
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov attends a press conference of Russian President Vladimir Putin speaks at the BRICS summit in Kazan, Russia October 24, 2024. (Reuters)
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Russia Condemns ‘Irresponsible’ Talk of Nuclear Weapons for Ukraine

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov attends a press conference of Russian President Vladimir Putin speaks at the BRICS summit in Kazan, Russia October 24, 2024. (Reuters)
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov attends a press conference of Russian President Vladimir Putin speaks at the BRICS summit in Kazan, Russia October 24, 2024. (Reuters)

Discussion in the West about arming Ukraine with nuclear weapons is "absolutely irresponsible", Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Tuesday, in response to a report in the New York Times citing unidentified officials who suggested such a possibility.

The New York Times reported last week that some unidentified Western officials had suggested US President Joe Biden could give Ukraine nuclear weapons before he leaves office.

"Several officials even suggested that Mr. Biden could return nuclear weapons to Ukraine that were taken from it after the fall of the Soviet Union. That would be an instant and enormous deterrent. But such a step would be complicated and have serious implications," the newspaper wrote.

Asked about the report, Peskov told reporters: "These are absolutely irresponsible arguments of people who have a poor understanding of reality and who do not feel a shred of responsibility when making such statements. We also note that all of these statements are anonymous."

Earlier, senior Russian security official Dmitry Medvedev said that if the West supplied nuclear weapons to Ukraine then Moscow could consider such a transfer to be tantamount to an attack on Russia, providing grounds for a nuclear response.

Ukraine inherited nuclear weapons from the Soviet Union after its 1991 collapse, but gave them up under a 1994 agreement, the Budapest Memorandum, in return for security assurances from Russia, the United States and Britain.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said last month that as Ukraine had handed over the nuclear weapons, joining NATO was the only way it could deter Russia.

The 33-month Russia-Ukraine war saw escalations on both sides last week, after Ukraine fired US and British missiles into Russia for the first time, with permission from the West, and Moscow responded by launching a new hypersonic intermediate-range missile into Ukraine.

Asked about the risk of a nuclear escalation, Peskov said the West should "listen carefully" to Putin and read Russia's newly updated nuclear doctrine, which lowered the threshold for using nuclear weapons.

Separately, Russian foreign intelligence chief Sergei Naryshkin said Moscow opposes simply freezing the conflict in Ukraine because it needs a "solid and long-term peace" that resolves the core reasons for the crisis.