Ammon News - AMMONNEWS - US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said on Monday the United States has seen activity from Iran that indicated a possible “escalation,” one day after the United States said it would send a carrier strike group to the Middle East to counter a “credible threat by Iranian regime forces.”

“We have continued to see activity that leads us to believe that there’s escalation that may be taking place, and so we’re taking all the appropriate actions, both from a security perspective as well as our ability to make sure the president has a wide range of options in the event that something should actually take place,” Pompeo told reporters.

‘Credible threat’
Meanwhile, the US defense chief Patrick Shanahan said Monday that the deployment of an aircraft carrier to the Middle East came in response to a “credible threat” by Iran.

The acting defense secretary tweeted that he approved the movement Sunday of the USS Abraham Lincoln carrier strike group as “a prudent repositioning of assets in response to indications of a credible threat by Iranian regime forces.”

“We call on the Iranian regime to cease all provocation. We will hold the Iranian regime accountable for any attack on US forces or our interests,” he said.

US officials have not specified the nature of the alleged threat from Iran, which has come under mounting pressure from President Donald Trump’s administration.

*Agencies