US sends aircraft carrier to Iranian waters, war is near?
(Baonghean) - Earlier this week, AFP quoted Patrick Shanahan, acting US Secretary of Defense, as saying that he had approved the deployment of the USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier strike group to unspecified waters in the vicinity of Iran in response to "indications of a credible threat from Iranian regime forces."
Warning of “cruel force”
“We call on the Iranian regime to cease all provocative behavior,” Mr. Shanahan wrote on Twitter. “We will hold the Iranian regime accountable for any attack on American forces or our interests.”
Earlier, a similar announcement was made by US national security adviser John Bolton on the night of May 5, stating that this step was "a clear and unmistakable message to the Iranian regime that any attack on US interests or those of our allies will be met with unrelenting force."
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| The USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier strike group is being deployed to the Middle East. Photo: EPA |
According to the adviser, who is considered a “hawk”, the US is not at war with Iran, but simply “fully prepared to respond to any attack, whether by proxy or by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps or conventional Iranian forces”.
Beyond such a eloquent announcement, US officials have not provided any specific information regarding what they allege is the threat posed by Iran.
For his part, responding to the "warning" move from the US, the spokesman for Iran's Supreme National Security Council Keyvan Khosr spoke out to reject Mr. Bolton's statement, calling it "clumsy use of an old event for psychological warfare".
Voices of opposition
Axios news site reported that Bolton's warning came after Israel - a country that has pushed to isolate Iran - passed on intelligence to the US about Tehran's plot to attack "an American target in the Gulf or US allies such as Saudi Arabia or the UAE".
The source cited an unnamed Israeli official as saying that the intelligence was “not very specific at this stage” but that “the Iran issue is heating up” due to the pressure it has brought.
Meanwhile, Mark Dubowitz - CEO of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, an organization that supports a hard line on Iran, also said he had heard about a "spike" in intelligence in recent days related to attack plots.
The source said Iran had given the “green light” to the Hamas and Islamic Jihad movements to launch rockets into Israel over the weekend in order to “create a crisis to distract the US and Israel” from plots taking place elsewhere.
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| US National Security Adviser John Bolton has a hawkish view on the Iran issue. Photo: AFP |
Other observers are more skeptical of the intentions of Mr. Bolton, who is widely seen as a supporter of an attack on Iran. There are also opinions, even within the United States, that express disagreement with the provocative move by the Trump administration.
“The Trump administration’s military-threatened foreign policy team is now publicly shouting its desire for an unauthorized and unconstitutional war with Iran.”
Senator Tom Udall used social media to call on the US Congress to take immediate action to stop the "reckless march towards war" before it is too late.
Whether it was intentional or not, the information about the deployment of the aircraft carrier strike group and bombers was "released" by the US exactly one year after President Trump announced his withdrawal from the historic nuclear agreement signed by the P5+1 group with Iran, even though the Islamic Republic is considered to have significantly scaled back its sensitive nuclear work.
Speaking about the current worrying situation, Director of the Future of Iran Initiative at the Atlantic Council think tank Barbara Slavin stated:
“I think this is a product that Mr. Bolton created to try to justify the US administration's extremely harsh policy towards Iran despite the fact that the Islamic Republic has been very compliant with the nuclear deal.”
Tehran angry
Amid the tension, anger is also clearly felt in Iran as the implementation of the nuclear deal has not brought the expected “returns”. ISNA news agency reported that President Hassan Rouhani will announce “retaliatory measures” on May 8 to mark the first anniversary of the US withdrawal from the nuclear deal.
The official source also revealed that Mr. Rouhani will cite parts of the agreement, according to which Iran can suspend part or all of its commitments if other parties do not comply with their roles, especially regarding the end of sanctions.
The Trump administration has imposed a series of sanctions on Tehran, and has stepped up its sanctions in recent weeks, banning all countries from buying oil, Iran’s number one export, and declaring Tehran’s Revolutionary Guards a terrorist organization, an unprecedented move.
Currently, UN inspectors are still affirming that Iran is complying with the nuclear deal and this agreement, once considered "historic", is still being wholeheartedly supported by European powers.
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| The US has announced sanctions on countries importing oil from Iran. Photo: Reuters |
To "evade" US sanctions, the UK, France and Germany have even set up special payment systems, allowing European businesses to operate in Iran.
However, the number of companies that dare to “provoke” the patience of the US is indeed small, causing Tehran to face obvious economic difficulties. Once the benefits do not meet expectations, it is difficult to ensure that Iran will continue to be enthusiastic about the agreement signed in 2015.
And in the immediate future, what is more worrying is the somewhat careless move by the US in mobilizing aircraft carriers, bombers, etc., which does not rule out the possibility of igniting a direct conflict between Washington and Tehran.
