The US aircraft carrier Nimitz, which was sailing in the South China Sea, turned west and is heading towards the Middle East today, against the backdrop of the conflict between Israel and Iran , according to the website Marine Traffic, which monitors the positions of ships around the world in real time.

The aircraft carrier is currently sailing through the Straits of Malacca, between the Indonesian island of Sumatra and Malaysia.

The US Navy has not yet responded to a question from Agence France-Presse.

A reception scheduled aboard the Nimitz for Friday, June 20, as part of the aircraft carrier's four-day visit to Danang, central Vietnam, has been cancelled, a Vietnamese government official told AFP, citing a letter from the US embassy.

The letter in question refers to an urgent operational need that the US Department of Defense invoked to justify the cancellation of this event.