ISLAMABAD – The United States deployed the USS Abraham Lincoln aircraftcarrier strike group and a bomber task force to the Persian Gulf in May, inwhat National Security Adviser John Bolton described as a “clear andunmistakable” message to Iran that any attack on American interests orthose of its allies would be met with “unrelenting force”.
US officers on the USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier, deployed at anAmerican naval base in Bahrain along with some smaller vessels, claimed inan interview with Sky News that their mission is to deter Iran fromstriking US targets, but added that they were also ready to launchoffensive strikes if ordered.
“A large part of deterrence is the readiness that backs that deterrence up.We are ready to defend the US and the US interests if called upon… My jobis to be here, to be ready, to deter and to defend if required”, RearAdmiral Michael Boyle, commander of Carrier Strike Group 12, said.
The USS Abraham Lincoln was sent to the Middle East in May due to whatWashington claimed was a “number of troubling and escalatory indicationsand warnings” from Iran. Despite the highly publicised deployment, theaircraft carrier has not passed through the Strait of Hormuz, a strategicwaterway linking Mideast crude producers to crucial world markets.
“For our mission here, which is deterrence, we are in the place we need tobe. The people in the know in Iran know that we are more of a deterrenthere than we are in the Arabian Gulf because from this position we canreach them and they can’t reach us. In a boxer’s analogy we have gotoverreach from the spot where we are right now”, Boyle added.
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According to Sky News, aircraft on the carrier were supposed tostrike several Iranian targets in June when Tehran brought down a US spydrone, which it claimed had violated its airspace and ignored multiplewarnings to leave the area. At the time, President Donald Trump calledoff the retaliatory strikes just 10 minutes before it was set to belaunched, explaining that the death of an estimated 150 Iranians wasdisproportionate to the loss of an unmanned aerial vehicle.
The drone incident was one of the many episodes contributing to the spikein US-Iran tensions: Washington has as well accused Tehran of beingbehind “sabotage attacks” on oil tankers off the UAE coast in mid-May andin the Gulf of Oman in early June, while Iran denied the allegations andurged the US to cease “warmongering” and “false flag” ops.
As a result, the United States has proposed to form an internationalmaritime coalitonand invited several European countries, including Germany,France, and the UK, along with other nations, such as Japan, South Korea,and Australia, to join. While some of them have expressed unwillingness totake part in the initiative, the UK has signed up for the mission. -Sputnik
