Citing Iranian Threat, U.S. Sends Carrier Group and Bombers to Persian Gulf
The aircraft carrier Abraham Lincoln last month in the Mediterranean Sea off Spain. It has been rerouted to the Persian Gulf.
WASHINGTON — The White House announced on Sunday that the United States was sending an aircraft carrier strike group and Air Force bombers to the Middle East because of “troubling and escalatory indications and warnings” related to Iran.
The deployment was intended “to send 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,” said John R. Bolton, the national security adviser, in a statement released Sunday night.
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The announcement did not give any further information on the reasons for the commitment of military forces. An American military official said on Sunday night that whatever threat Mr. Bolton cited had most likely emerged in the previous 24 to 48 hours because as of late Friday, military analysts were not tracking any new, imminent or clearly defined Iranian or Iranian-backed threats against Americans in Iraq or the region.
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, when asked by reporters about Mr. Bolton’s statement on a flight to Finland, said, “It’s something we’ve been working on for a little while.”
“It is absolutely the case that we’ve seen escalatory action from the Iranians, and it is equally the case that we will hold the Iranians accountable for attacks on American interests,” he said. “The fact that those actions take place, if they do, by some third-party proxy, whether that’s a Shia militia group or the Houthis or Hezbollah, we will hold the Iranians — Iranian leadership — directly accountable for that.”
There have been escalating rounds of fatal violence between Hamas, the armed Palestinian group in Gaza, and the Israeli military in recent days, but an American official said that was not related to the military ramp-up in the Persian Gulf. Although Iran has provided financing to Hamas, there is no sign that it was involved in the recent rocket attacks against Israel.
“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 Guards Corps or regular Iranian forces,” Mr. Bolton said in the statement.
The carrier group heading to the Persian Gulf is that of the U.S.S. Abraham Lincoln, which has been in the Mediterranean Sea. There is no carrier strike group currently in the Persian Gulf, but such groups often transit through those waters since the Suez Canal is in the region.
At the end of April, the Abraham Lincoln and its fleet of accompanying ships trained alongside other American vessels and military units from the United Kingdom, Spain and France.
A Pentagon spokesman confirmed the military moves as outlined in Mr. Bolton’s statement but declined to provide more details.
“We will not distinguish between attacks from Shia militias in #Iraq and the #IRGC that controls them,” Senator Marco Rubio, a Republican of Florida and member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said Monday morning on Twitter. “Any attack by these groups against U.S. forces will be considered an attack by #Iran & responded to accordingly.”
The Trump administration has taken a hard-line policy against Iran and has said it aims to force Iran to lessen or end its support for Shiite militias and other groups across the Middle East.
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https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/05/world/middleeast/us-iran-military-threat-.html
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WASHINGTON — The White House announced on Sunday that the United States was sending an aircraft carrier strike group and Air Force bombers to the Middle East because of “troubling and escalatory indications and warnings” related to Iran.
The deployment was intended “to send 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,” said John R. Bolton, the national security adviser, in a statement released Sunday night.
[Sign up for the weekly At War newsletter to receive stories about duty, conflict and consequence.]
The announcement did not give any further information on the reasons for the commitment of military forces. An American military official said on Sunday night that whatever threat Mr. Bolton cited had most likely emerged in the previous 24 to 48 hours because as of late Friday, military analysts were not tracking any new, imminent or clearly defined Iranian or Iranian-backed threats against Americans in Iraq or the region.
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, when asked by reporters about Mr. Bolton’s statement on a flight to Finland, said, “It’s something we’ve been working on for a little while.”
“It is absolutely the case that we’ve seen escalatory action from the Iranians, and it is equally the case that we will hold the Iranians accountable for attacks on American interests,” he said. “The fact that those actions take place, if they do, by some third-party proxy, whether that’s a Shia militia group or the Houthis or Hezbollah, we will hold the Iranians — Iranian leadership — directly accountable for that.”
There have been escalating rounds of fatal violence between Hamas, the armed Palestinian group in Gaza, and the Israeli military in recent days, but an American official said that was not related to the military ramp-up in the Persian Gulf. Although Iran has provided financing to Hamas, there is no sign that it was involved in the recent rocket attacks against Israel.
“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 Guards Corps or regular Iranian forces,” Mr. Bolton said in the statement.
The carrier group heading to the Persian Gulf is that of the U.S.S. Abraham Lincoln, which has been in the Mediterranean Sea. There is no carrier strike group currently in the Persian Gulf, but such groups often transit through those waters since the Suez Canal is in the region.
At the end of April, the Abraham Lincoln and its fleet of accompanying ships trained alongside other American vessels and military units from the United Kingdom, Spain and France.
A Pentagon spokesman confirmed the military moves as outlined in Mr. Bolton’s statement but declined to provide more details.
“We will not distinguish between attacks from Shia militias in #Iraq and the #IRGC that controls them,” Senator Marco Rubio, a Republican of Florida and member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said Monday morning on Twitter. “Any attack by these groups against U.S. forces will be considered an attack by #Iran & responded to accordingly.”
The Trump administration has taken a hard-line policy against Iran and has said it aims to force Iran to lessen or end its support for Shiite militias and other groups across the Middle East.
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https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/05/world/middleeast/us-iran-military-threat-.html
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