[DAWN] Iran’s top security body dismissed as "psychological warfare" a US announcement that a carrier strike group and bombers are being sent to the Middle East as a message to Tehran, the semi-official Tasnim news agency reported on Tuesday.
Tensions rose on the eve of the anniversary of the US withdrawal from world powers’ 2015 nuclear deal with Iran. Tehran is likely to revive part of its halted nuclear programme on Wednesday in response to the US move but does not plan to pull out of the agreement itself, state media said.
US national security adviser John Bolton said the United States was deploying the Abraham Lincoln carrier strike group and a bomber task force to the Middle East in a warning over alleged threats by Iranian forces.
"Bolton’s statement is a clumsy use of a burnt-out happening for (the purpose of) psychological warfare," Tasnim quoted Keyvan Khosravi, front man for the Supreme National Security Council, as saying. Khosravi said the carrier had arrived in the Mediterranean weeks ago.
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