The United States flew strategic bombers over the Persian Gulf on Wednesday for the second time this month, a show of force meant to deter Iran from attacking American or allied targets in the Middle East.

One senior US military officer said the flight by two Air Force B-52 bombers was in response to signals that Iran may be planning attacks against US allied targets in neighboring Iraq or elsewhere in the region in the coming days, even as President-elect Joe Biden prepares to take office.

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The B-52 bomber mission, flown round trip from an Air Force base in North Dakota, reflects growing concern in Washington, in the final weeks of US President Donald Trump's administration, that Iran will order further military retaliation for the US killing last Jan. 3 of top Iranian military commander Gen. Qassem Soleimani. Iran's initial response, five days after the deadly US drone strike, was a ballistic missile attack on a military base in Iraq that caused brain concussion injuries to about 100 US troops.

Adding to the tension was a rocket attack last week on the US Embassy compound in Baghdad by Iranian-supported Shiite militia groups. No one was killed, but Trump tweeted afterward that Iran was on notice.

"Some friendly health advice to Iran: If one American is killed, I will hold Iran responsible. Think it over," Trump wrote on Dec. 23.

Because of the potential for escalation that could lead to a wider war, the US has sought to deter Iran from additional attacks. Strategic calculations on both sides are further complicated by the political transition in Washington to a Biden administration that may seek new paths to dealing with Iran. Biden has said, for example, that he hopes to return the US to a 2015 agreement with world powers in which Iran agreed to limit its nuclear activities in exchange for the lifting of international sanctions.

In announcing Wednesday's bomber flight, the head of US Central Command said it was a defensive move.

"The United States continues to deploy combat-ready capabilities into the US Central Command area of responsibility to deter any potential adversary, and make clear that we are ready and able to respond to any aggression directed at Americans or our interests," said Gen. Frank McKenzie, the commander of Central Command.

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"We do not seek conflict, but no one should underestimate our ability to defend our forces or to act decisively in response to any attack," McKenzie said.

He did not mention Iran by name.

In advance of the announcement, the senior US military officer who spoke on condition of anonymity said that US intelligence has detected recent signs of "fairly substantive threats" from Iran, and that included planning for possible rocket attacks against US interests in Iraq in connection with the one-year anniversary of the Soleimani killing.

The US is in the process of reducing its troop presence in Iraq from 3,000 to about 2,500. Trump ordered that the reduction be achieved by Jan. 15; officials say it is likely to be reached as early as next week.

The United States also has picked up signs that Iran may be considering or planning "more complex" and broader attacks against American targets or interests in the Middle East, the senior US military officer said, adding that it represented the most concerning signs since the days immediately following the Soleimani killing. The officer cited indications that advanced weaponry has been flowing from Iran into Iraq recently and that Shiite militia leaders in Iraq may have met with officers of Iran's Quds force, previously commanded by Soleimani.

The US officer said Iran might have its eye on economic targets, noting the September 2019 missile and drone attack on Saudi oil processing facilities. Iran denied involvement but was blamed by the United States for that attack.

In recent weeks the US military has taken a range of steps designed to deter Iran, while publicly emphasizing that it is not planning, and has not been instructed, to take unprovoked action against Iran.

Last week, a US Navy guided-missile submarine made an unusual transit of the Strait of Hormuz, the strategic waterway between Iran and the Arabian Peninsula. Earlier in December, a pair of B-52 bombers from Barksdale Air Force Base in Louisiana flew what the military calls a "presence" mission over the Gulf – a demonstration of US force and a signal of US commitment to the region, but not an attack mission. That flight was repeated this week, with two B-52s flying nonstop from Minot Air Force Base in North Dakota and heading home Wednesday after cruising over the western side of the Gulf.

Tensions with Iran escalated with the killing in November of Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, an Iranian scientist named by the West as the leader of the Islamic Republic's disbanded military nuclear program. Iran has blamed Israel for the killing, but US officials are concerned that any Iranian retaliation could hit US interests.

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The EU and major European powers – Britain, France and Germany – also said that they "note with great concern the statement made by Iran concerning its commitments" to the nuclear deal, stressing that they "reject any ultimatums" coming from Tehran.

The joint statement came as the bloc struggles to preserve the 2015 nuclear deal with Iran, a day after a new deadline from Tehran on finding a solution to make up for last year's unilateral U.S. withdrawal from the accord and re-imposed U.S. sanctions on Iran.

"We remain fully committed to the preservation and full implementation" of the deal, endorsed by the U.N. Security Council, said the EU statement.

The Trump administration pulled America out of the 2015 deal a year ago, saying it does nothing to stop Iran from developing missiles or destabilizing the Middle East. The Europeans insist that the pact is an important pillar of regional and global security and was never meant to address those other issues.

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said in a televised address Wednesday that signatories to the deal now have 60 days to come up with a plan to shield his country – already laboring under economic hardship – from the sanctions imposed by U.S. President Donald Trump.

As the sanctions bite, domestic pressure is increasing on Rouhani to demonstrate that Iran can still benefit from an agreement based on providing it with economic opportunities in exchange for limiting nuclear development.

"Iran must remain in this agreement and we must do everything we can to ensure that it stays in," French President Emmanuel Macron told reporters at an EU summit in Romania, where leaders were to discuss the standoff.

Amid the heated rhetoric from Tehran and Washington, Macron urged the agreement's signatories not to "get caught up in any escalation" and to "jointly watch over our collective security."

In their statement, the EU powers said they "regret the re-imposition of sanctions" by the U.S. and remain "determined to continue pursuing efforts to enable the continuation of legitimate trade with Iran."

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said Thursday the U.S. has bullied Europe and the rest of the world with its Iran policy.

"Instead of demanding that Iran unilaterally abide by a multilateral accord, EU should uphold obligations –[including] normalization of economic ties," he wrote on Twitter.

The Europeans have set up a complicated barter-type system to skirt direct financial transactions with Iran and so evade possible U.S. sanctions. The workaround, dubbed INSTEX, is not yet operational as Iran has not completed its part of the scheme.

The bloc said it plans to push ahead with "the operationalization of the special purpose vehicle 'INSTEX.'"

The EU has also introduced a so-called "blocking statute" protecting European companies from the effects of U.S. sanctions, but many international corporations do more business in the United States than in Iran and have already severed ties there rather than risk running afoul of Washington.

In a message implicitly directed at the U.S. administration, the EU powers said, "We call on countries not party to the [deal] to refrain from taking any actions that impede the remaining parties' ability to fully perform their commitments."

Despite the heated rhetoric, the Europeans insist that only the International Atomic Energy Agency can judge whether Iran remains in compliance with the nuclear agreement. More than a dozen reports have shown that Tehran is respecting it so far. A new report is due at the end of May.

"So far we have seen Iran fully compliant with all its nuclear-related commitments," EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini said at the summit. The deal, she said, "is a matter of security for us and for the entire world."

The crisis with Iran comes at a sensitive moment in the wider Middle East. B-52 bombers ordered by the White House on Sunday to deploy to the Persian Gulf to counter unspecified threats from Iran, began to arrive Thursday at a major American air base in Qatar.

Images released by the U.S. Air Force show B-52H Stratofortress bombers arriving at Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar. Others landed at an undisclosed location Wednesday.

Israel, which has conducted pre-emptive bombings of nuclear facilities in Iraq and Syria, has vowed to never allow Iran to obtain an atomic weapon.

The USS Abraham Lincoln on Thursday passed through the Suez Canal on its way to the Persian Gulf, according to Mohab Mameesh, the canal's authority chief. Egypt's state-run Middle East News Agency said the U.S. defense attache in Cairo, Gen. Ralph Groover, traveled to the Suez Canal area to check on the status of the U.S. warship.

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