The top U.S. military commander in the Middle East praised the leadership of the long-deployed USS Lincoln after visiting the sailors on the vessel during a regional tour that ended on Saturday, the U.S.
Central Command said.
Extended deployments of carriers — which can have more than 5,000 sailors and Marines on board — have raised concerns.
“History will record this deployment as one of the most operationally intense and consequential of the modern era,” Cooper said of the Lincoln strike group in a statement released Saturday.
Hezbollah has refused direct talks and wasn’t party to the U.S.-mediated deal. Israeli forces have carried out repeated airstrikes , killing at least 1,262 Palestinians, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry While the heaviest fighting has subsided since a ceasefire took hold in October between Israel and Hamas.
Israel and the Lebanese government announced a “framework agreement” in June, laying out a plan for Israeli forces to withdraw from southern Lebanon in exchange for Hezbollah’s disarmament .
In a statement Sunday, Cooper praised the leadership on the carrier for making mental health and resilience a priority. Separately, Kushner met with Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi. Lebanon’s Health Ministry and state news agency said at least 11 people were killed.
The president’s office said the meeting called for Israel and Hamas to “fulfill their obligations under the ceasefire agreement in the Gaza Strip,” without elaborating. Kushner, former British Prime Minister Tony Blair and the director of the U.S.-created Board of Peace overseeing the ceasefire , Nickolay Mladenov, are to meet with Netanyahu on Monday, according to a person familiar with the plans and a diplomat who both spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss a closed-door meeting.
