The second U.S. aircraft carrier strike group, USS Gerald R. Ford, is expected to arrive in the Middle East in about one week at the earliest amid tensions with Iran, said a U.S. official on Friday.
Also on Friday, U.S. President Donald Trump confirmed that the U.S. military would send a second aircraft carrier strike group to the Middle East to prepare for a possible military action against Iran if negotiations fail.
Media reports cited two U.S. officials as saying that the military is preparing for the possibility of weeks-long military operation against Iran if Trump gives the order to attack.
The two officials said that, unlike the air strike against Iran's nuclear facilities in June last year, the preparations for this operation are more complex.
They said that if war breaks out, the U.S. military will broaden the targets to include the Iranian government and security agencies, and will also fully assess the scale of possible retaliatory actions by Iran.
The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) has previously said that if the United States attacks Iran, Iran will strike U.S. military bases in the Middle East.
The United States and Iran held indirect talks on Feb 6 in the Omani capital Muscat and the next round of talks are scheduled to take place on Tuesday in Geneva, Switzerland. The U.S. delegation will be led by U.S. presidential special envoy Steve Witkoff and Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner.
Washington has said any deal with Iran must include a ban on nuclear weapon production, uranium enrichment, the removal of already enriched material, limits on long-range missiles, and a rollback of support for regional proxies.
Iran has maintained that it does not seek to develop nuclear weapons, but it must have the right to peacefully utilize nuclear energy.
Iranian Foreign Minister Seyed Abbas Araghchi has said that Iran's defensive and missile capabilities will never be the subject of any negotiation.
Second US aircraft carrier expected to arrive in Middle East in about week amid tensions with Iran: official
An increasing number of German consumers are considering buying electric vehicles (EVs) in the face of high fuel prices, according to a recent survey by the largest German online car trading platform, mobile.de.
As the Middle East tensions continue to drive up international oil and gas prices, the cost of automotive fuel has been rising steadily in many European countries.
According to fuel price data compiled by the German Association of the Automotive Industry, since the United States and Israel launched military strikes against Iran on February 28, gasoline prices in Germany have risen by nearly 20 percent, while diesel prices have shot up by more than 30 percent.
Results from a recent survey by mobile.de show that if gasoline prices remain at current high levels, 43 percent of respondents said they would switch to EVs, and 36 percent cited long-term cost savings as the most important reason for considering an EV purchase.
Additionally, the platform's data show that inquiries about used EVs surged by 66 percent in the first half of March.
"We are absolutely seeing much more interest on mobile.de for electric cars. What the German energy transition couldn't do, this current geopolitical situation has done in terms of transition to electric cars," said Ajay Bhatia, CEO of mobile.de.
In addition to high oil prices, government subsidies are also a key factor driving German consumers to consider purchasing EVs.
The German government announced the resumption of subsidies in January of this year, planning to invest 3 billion euros over the next few years to provide purchase subsidies for some 800,000 EVs.
Driven by the combined effects of high oil prices and subsidy policies, German consumers' interest in EVs has grown clearly. However, it remains to be seen whether this shift will evolve into a more sustained market trend.
"How long it will stay is anyone's guess, but at the moment we're absolutely seeing an increase, and sometimes these transitions need a catalyst. And this is definitely a catalyst that is seeing the transition to electric cars speed up," said Bhatia.
More Germans interested in buying EVs due to high oil prices: survey
