US carrier sending ‘message’ to Iran

WASHINGTON — The United States is sending an aircraft carrier strike group and a bomber task force to the Middle East in a “clear and unmistakable” message to Iran, US National Security Adviser John Bolton said on Sunday.

“In response to a number of troubling and escalatory indications and warnings, the United States is deploying the USS Abraham Lincoln Carrier Strike Group and a bomber task force to the US Central Command region,” Bolton said in a statement.

The deployment is aimed at sending “a clear and unmistakable message to the Iranian regime that any attack on United States interests or on those of our allies will be met with unrelenting force”, Bolton said.

“The United States is not seeking war with the Iranian regime, but we are fully prepared to respond to any attack, whether by proxy, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, or regular Iranian forces,” he added.

The Abraham Lincoln and its strike group of ships and combat aircraft have been operating in the Mediterranean Sea recently. Last Wednesday a group of senior Albanian government officials visited aboard the Lincoln as it sailed in the Adriatic, The Associated Press reported.

According to AP, Bolton’s reference to the Central Command area would mean the Lincoln is headed east to the Red Sea and perhaps then to the Arabian Sea or the Persian Gulf. The US Navy currently has no aircraft carrier in the Persian Gulf.

Speaking to reporters while flying to Europe, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said the actions undertaken by the US had been in the works for a little while.

“It is absolutely the case that we have seen escalatory actions from the Iranians and it is equally the case that we will hold the Iranians accountable for attacks on American interests,” Pompeo said. “If these actions take place, if they do by some third-party proxy, a militia group, Hezbollah, we will hold the Iranian leadership directly accountable for that.”

Pompeo did not elaborate on what Iranian “escalatory actions” he was referring to. “I don’t want to talk about what underlays it, but make no mistake, we have good reason to want to communicate clearly about how the Iranians should understand how we will respond to actions they may take,” he said.

The deployment came amid heightened tensions between Washington and Teheran over the latter’s nuclear program, with the US taking aim at Iranian enriched uranium exports with sanctions, Agence France-Presse reported.

Last month, Trump announced the US will no longer exempt any countries from US sanctions if they continue to buy Iranian oil.

The US also recently designated Iran’s Revolutionary Guard as a terrorist group, the first ever for an entire division of another government.

The US also unilaterally withdrew from the 2015 Iran nuclear deal with world powers a year ago and instead vowed “maximum pressure” aimed at curbing the regional role of Iran.

Bolton and Pompeo have in recent months spoken stridently about Iran and its “malign activities” in the region.

CLODAGH KILCOYNE / REUTERS