US deploying carrier to Middle East to deter Iran

WASHINGTON- Reuters

The Trump administration is deploying a carrier strike group and bombers to the Middle East in response to troubling "indications and warnings" from Iran and to show the United States will retaliate with "unrelenting force" to any attack, national security adviser John Bolton said on May 5.

With tensions already high between Washington and Tehran, a U.S. official said the deployment has been ordered: "as deterrence to what has been seen as potential preparations by Iranian forces and its proxies that may indicate possible attacks on U.S. forces in the region."

However, the official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the United States was not expecting any imminent Iranian attack.

Bolton- who has spearheaded an increasingly hawkish U.S. policy on Iran- said the decision, which could exacerbate problems between the two countries, was meant to send a "clear and unmistakable message" of U.S. resolve to Tehran.

Though he cited no specific Iranian activities that have raised new concerns, Iran has recently warned it would block the Strait of Hormuz if it was barred from using the strategic waterway. About a fifth of the oil consumed globally passes through the strait.

"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 in a statement.

It marked the latest in a series of moves by President Donald Trump's administration aimed at ratcheting up pressure on Iran in recent months.

Washington has said it will stop waivers for countries buying Iranian oil, in an attempt to reduce Iran's oil exports to zero. It has also blacklisted Iran's elite Revolutionary Guard Corps, taking the unprecedented step of designating it as a foreign terrorist organization, which Iran has cast as an American provocation.