Fears of conflict rose Monday as the United States vowed to send a message to Iran by deploying an aircraft carrier strike group, amid a report that Tehran would scale back its commitments under a nuclear deal after mounting pressure by President Donald Trump.
Patrick Shanahan, the acting US defense secretary, said he approved the deployment of the USS Abraham Lincoln carrier strike group to unspecified waters in the vicinity of Iran in response to “indications of a credible threat by Iranian regime forces.”
“We call on the Iranian regime to cease all provocation. We will hold the Iranian regime accountable for any attack on US forces or our interests,” Shanahan tweeted.
The deployment was first announced late Sunday by John Bolton, Trump’s national security advisor, who said the move was “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.”
“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,” Bolton said.
US officials did not give more details on the alleged threat and the Pentagon had already announced in April that the USS Abraham Lincoln had headed on a “regularly scheduled deployment” out of its base in Norfolk, Virginia.
Source: Guardian Newspaper
