WASHINGTON – The United States is deploying an amphibious assault ship anda Patriot missile battery to bolster an aircraft carrier and B-52 bombersalready sent to the Gulf, ratcheting up pressure Saturday on archfoe Iran.
In response to alleged threats from Iran, the USS Arlington, whichtransports marines, amphibious vehicles, conventional landing craft androtary aircraft, and the Patriot air defence system will join the AbrahamLincoln carrier group, the Pentagon announced Friday.
The carrier and a B-52 bomber task force were ordered towards the Gulf, asWashington reiterated that intelligence reports suggested Iran was planningsome sort of attack in the region.
CENTCOM, the US forces for the Middle East and Afghanistan, said Friday onTwitter that the B-52 bombers arrived at the area of operations on May 8,without saying where they had landed.
US President Donald Trump’s national security advisor John Bolton has saidthe deployment aimed to send a “clear and unmistakable” message to Iranabout any attack against the US or its partners in the region.
Washington has not elaborated on the alleged threat, drawing criticism thatit is overreacting and unnecessarily driving up tensions in the region.
There was no immediate reaction from Tehran on the latest US moves, butearlier in the week it shrugged off the carrier deployment.
“Bolton’s statement is a clumsy use of an out-of-date event forpsychological warfare,” Iran’s Supreme National Security Council spokesmanKeyvan Khosravi said.
The increasing tensions come as Tehran said Wednesday it had stoppedrespecting limits on its nuclear activities agreed under a 2015 deal withmajor powers.
Iran said it was responding to the sweeping unilateral sanctions thatWashington has re-imposed since it quit the agreement one year ago, whichhave dealt a severe blow to the Iranian economy.
– US ‘not seeking war’ –
The Pentagon, for its part, said the deployments were “in response toindications of heightened Iranian readiness to conduct offensive operationsagainst US forces and our interests”.
“The Department of Defence continues to closely monitor the activities ofthe Iranian regime, their military and proxies,” it said.
“The United States does not seek conflict with Iran, but we are posturedand ready to defend US forces and interests in the region.”
Amid the rising tensions, Trump said Thursday he was open to talks withTehran’s leadership.
“What I would like to see with Iran, I would like to see them call me,”Trump told reporters at the White House.
“We don’t want them to have nuclear weapons — not much to ask,” he said.
In the latest of a series of escalating statements, however, Secretary ofState Mike Pompeo the same day threatened a “swift and decisive” USresponse to any attack by Iran.
“Our restraint to this point should not be mistaken by Iran for a lack ofresolve,” he said, adding however: “We do not seek war.”
In May last year, Trump pulled the United States out of an agreement aimedat curtailing Iran’s nuclear ambitions and reinstated unilateral economicsanctions.
On Wednesday, President Hassan Rouhani said Iran would no longer implementparts of the deal and threatened to go further if the remaining members ofthe pact, including the European Union, failed to deliver sanctions reliefto counterbalance Trump’s renewed assault on the Iranian economy within 60days. -APP/AFP