WASHINGTON, May 6, 2019 (BSS/AFP) – 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 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.”
The statement did not specifically state why the deployment is taking
place now, but it comes during a deadly escalation between Gaza-based
Palestinian militants and Israel in which the two sides have traded a barrage
of rocket fire and air strikes in recent days.
The deployment also comes amid heightened tensions between Washington and
Tehran over the latter’s nuclear program, with the US taking aim at Iranian
enriched uranium exports with sanctions.