Navy strike group deployed to send ‘message’ to Iran

The U.S. military is deploying the USS Abraham Lincoln Carrier Strike Group and a bomber task force to the Central Command region in the Middle East to send a “clear and unmistakable message” to Iran, national security adviser John Bolton said in a statement Sunday.

The action, confirmed by the Defense Department, comes “in response to a number of troubling and escalatory indications and warnings,” Bolton said, and is intended to convey “to the Iranian regime that any attack on United States interests or on those of our allies will be met with unrelenting force.”

Story Continued Below

Bolton added: “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.”

President Donald Trump abandoned the multinational Iran nuclear deal in May of last year, and the Trump administration is expected to impose even more economic sanctions on Tehran in the coming days. Trump and others in the administration have consistently spoken harshly about Iran.

The Trump administration insists that it is not seeking to topple Iran’s Islamist regime, but that it only seeks to push the government to stop supporting proxy militias and terrorist groups and otherwise change its behavior.

Some of the administration’s critics, however, fear that its actions and rhetoric could provoke the Iranians in a manner that leads to a military confrontation.

According to the Navy’s official website, the Abraham Lincoln Carrier Strike Group had departed Norfolk, Va., on April 1 for what was described as “as a regularly scheduled deployment.” Rear Adm. John Wade is commander of the carrier strike group.

The Lincoln is already in the Mediterranean, where it has been conducting a two-carrier exercise with another carrier, the Stennis.

Bolton’s statement came not long after Trump tweeted about the violent situation in southern Israel and Gaza. Hamas — which has links to Iran — has been firing rockets from Gaza into Israel, and Israel has responded with airstrikes. Israel and Iran, of course, are mortal enemies.

“We support Israel 100% in its defense of its citizens,” Trump wrote online.

“To the Gazan people — these terrorist acts against Israel will bring you nothing but more misery,” the president added. “END the violence and work towards peace – it can happen!”

Nahal Toosi, Bryan Bender and Wesley Morgan contributed to this report.