WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - The United States is deploying the USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft Carrier Strike Group and a bomber task force to the U.S. Central Command region in the Middle East.
A White House statement said Washington took the measure in response to 'a number of troubling and escalatory indications and warnings.'
National Security Advisor John Bolton said that the US Government wants 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'.
While making it clear that the United States is not seeking war with the Iranian regime, Bolton said the nation is fully prepared to respond to any attack, whether by proxy, or the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, or regular Iranian forces.
It comes a month after the Trump administration designated Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps as a terrorist organization, and a year after withdrawing the US from a nuclear deal that major powers signed with Iran during the Obama era.
As part of putting economic pressure on Iran, US President Donald Trump last month lifted economic sanctions waiver given to a number of countries, including India, for buying oil from Iran.
Oil is Iran's major source of revenue, and by this measure, Trump aims to block Iran's oil exports.
The Trump administration is expected to impose more economic sanctions on Iran, reports say.
The deployment of war ship will only add to the already tense situation in the Middle East, where Hamas - which has links to Iran - has been firing rockets from Gaza into Israel, and Israel has responded with air strikes.
However, the latest report says Palestinian leaders in Gaza have agreed to a ceasefire with Israel.
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