American aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln passed
through the Suez Canal on 9 May, Egyptian authorities said, as a US strike
group heads towards the Gulf amid rising tensions between Washington and
Tehran.
US President Donald Trump's national security advisor
John Bolton on 5 May announced the deployment of an aircraft strike group and
bomber task force in a ‘clear and unmistakable’ message to Iran that it would
respond to any attack on the US or its allies.
To reach the Gulf, the carrier must pass through the
strategically vital Suez Canal which connects the Mediterranean Sea to the Red
Sea.
Gen Ralph Groover, the US defence attaché in Cairo,
commended Egyptian authorities for ensuring the vessel's ‘complete safety’
during its passage, according to a statement from the canal's Port Authority.
A senior official from the authority, who preferred to
remain anonymous, confirmed to AFP that the carrier had passed through the
canal smoothly. ‘We have nothing to do with (its) political dimensions,’ he
said.
In his announcement 5 May, Bolton stopped short of saying
Washington planned to enter into a direct conflict with Tehran.
But the deployment comes amid increasingly belligerent
rhetoric following Washington's withdrawal last year from the multi-party 2015
deal over Iran's nuclear programme.
In recent weeks, Trump's administration has re-imposed
stringent sanctions on Iran and blacklisted the Iranian Revolutionary Guards
Corps as a terrorist group. In response, Tehran said it would stop abiding by
parts of the nuclear agreement.
Iran on 6 May dismissed the naval deployment as ‘old news’,
saying Iranian forces had seen the vessel enter the Mediterranean three weeks
earlier.
The USS Abraham Lincoln has been deployed to the Gulf on
previous occasions, including during the 2003 US-led invasion of Iraq.