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The USS Gerald R. Ford, the world's largest aircraft carrier, sent to the Mediterranean this week in a military buildup to put pressure on Iran, left a naval base in Crete Thursday, an Agence France-Presse (AFP) photographer said.
Its departure came as a new round of indirect talks between the United States and Iran on the latter's nuclear program, mediated by Oman's foreign minister, opened in Geneva Thursday morning.
The vessel has been in the U.S. Naval Support Activity Souda Bay base in Crete since Monday.
The U.S. embassy in Athens has declined to comment on the carrier's presence, forwarding questions to the Pentagon in Washington.
President Donald Trump ordered strikes on Iran last year. He has repeatedly threatened Tehran with fresh military action if it does not cut a new deal on its contentious nuclear program, which the West fears is aimed at building an atomic weapon.
Washington has more than a dozen warships in the Middle East: one aircraft carrier, the USS Abraham Lincoln, nine destroyers, and three other combat ships.
It is rare for there to be two U.S. aircraft carriers, which carry dozens of warplanes and are crewed by thousands of sailors, in the Middle East.
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