US CENTCOM chief wraps up 10-day Middle East tour
12:09, 16/08/2026, Sunday
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Adm. Brad Cooper completed a 10-day tour of Bahrain, Iraq, Israel, Jordan, Saudi Arabia and the UAE alongside the USS Abraham Lincoln in the Arabian Sea, meeting with regional military leaders and deployed service members among the more than 50,000 US troops operating across the Middle East.
Regional consultations
The commander of US Central Command concluded a 10-day regional tour on Saturday, visiting six Middle Eastern countries and the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln while meeting with allied military leaders and deployed American troops. Adm. Brad Cooper held talks with military leaders and officials in Bahrain, Iraq, Israel, Jordan, Saudi Arabia and the UAE during the trip, CENTCOM said on social media platform X. He also met with deployed US service members, who are among the more than 50,000 American troops currently operating across the Middle East.
Carrier visit
During his second visit to the USS Abraham Lincoln in the Arabian Sea, Cooper thanked service members aboard the vessel "for their tremendous dedication and courage." "History will record this deployment as one of the most operationally intense and consequential of the modern era," he said, praising the carrier strike group's operational achievements.
Deployment background
The San Diego-based aircraft carrier departed for deployment in November and arrived in the Middle East in January. Cooper had previously visited the vessel in February alongside US special envoy Steve Witkoff and President Donald Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner.
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