MONITORING DESK
\nCAIRO
\nAmerican aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln passed through the Suez Canal Thursday, Egyptian authorities said, as a US strike group heads towards the Gulf amid rising tensions between Washington and Tehran.
\nUS President Donald Trump\u2019s national security advisor John Bolton on Sunday announced the deployment of an aircraft strike group and bomber task force in a \u201cclear and unmistakable\u201d message to Iran that it would respond to any attack on the US or its allies.
\nTo reach the Gulf, the carrier must pass through the strategically vital Suez Canal which connects the Mediterranean Sea to the Red Sea.
\nGeneral Ralph Groover, the US defence attache in Cairo, commended Egyptian authorities for ensuring the vessel\u2019s \u201ccomplete safety\u201d during its passage, according to a statement from the canal\u2019s Port Authority.
\nA senior official from the authority, who preferred to remain anonymous, confirmed to AFP that the carrier had passed through the canal \u201csmoothly\u201d.
\n\u201cWe have nothing to do with (its) political dimensions,\u201d he said.
\nIn his announcement Sunday, Bolton stopped short of saying Washington planned to enter into a direct conflict with Tehran.
\nBut the deployment comes amid increasingly belligerent rhetoric following Washington\u2019s withdrawal last year from the multi-party 2015 deal over Iran\u2019s nuclear programme.
\nIn recent weeks, Trump\u2019s administration has re-imposed stringent sanctions on Iran and blacklisted the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps as a terrorist group.
\nIn response, Tehran said it would stop abiding by parts of the nuclear agreement.
\nIran on Monday dismissed the naval deployment as \u201cold news\u201d, saying Iranian forces had seen the vessel enter the Mediterranean three weeks earlier.
\nThe USS Abraham Lincoln has been deployed to the Gulf on previous occasions, including during the 2003 US-led invasion of Iraq.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
MONITORING DESK CAIRO American aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln passed through the Suez Canal Thursday, Egyptian authorities said, as a US strike group heads towards the Gulf amid rising tensions between Washington and Tehran. US President Donald Trump\u2019s national security advisor John Bolton on Sunday announced the deployment of an aircraft strike group and bomber […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-63362","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-world"],"yoast_head":"\n