‘Message’ to Iran

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, National Security Advisor John Bolton said yesterday.

“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 USS Abraham Lincoln has previously been deployed to the Gulf, including during the 2003 US-led invasion of Iraq. The statement did not specifically state why the deployment is taking place now, but Secretary of State Mike Pompeo later said it was not related to Gaza, where Palestinian and Israel have traded a barrage of rocket fire and air strikes in recent days.