Iran: US sending carrier, bombers to Middle East is ‘psychological warfare’

Iran’s security body said a US announcement of sending a carrier strike group and bombers to the Middle East to send a message to Tehran amounted to “psychological warfare”, the semi-official Tasnim news agency said today.

According to Reuters US national security adviser John Bolton saying on Sunday the United States was deploying the Abraham Lincoln carrier strike group and a bomber task force to the Middle East to send a message to Iran.

“Bolton’s statement is a clumsy use of a burnt-out happening for psychological warfare,” said Keyvan Khosravi, spokesman for the Supreme National Security Council, according to Tasnim, adding that the carrier had arrived in the Mediterranean weeks ago.

Last year President Donald Trump unilaterally withdrew from a landmark nuclear deal the US and other nations had agreed with Iran in 2015. He then placed “unprecedented” sanctions on the Gulf state in an effort to cripple its economy and force regime change or force Tehran to negotiate a “new deal” that would cover not only its nuclear activities, but also its ballistic missile programme.

It is feared that Iran’s ballistic missiles are capable of striking US ally in the region, Israel.

Iran has repeatedly threatened to retaliate to the US measures by blocking the Strait of Hormuz – though which about a fifth of all oil consumed globally passes.

READ: Iran slams US’s ‘bullying behaviour’ on nuclear deal