Bourse and Bazaar | AFP: Fears of conflict rose Monday as the United States�vowed to send a message to Iran by deploying an aircraft carrier strike group,�amid a report that Tehran would scale back commitments under a nuclear deal�after mounting pressure by President Donald Trump.


Patrick Shanahan, the acting US defense secretary, said he approved the�deployment of the USS Abraham Lincoln carrier strike group to unspecified�waters in the vicinity of Iran 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,"�Shanahan tweeted.


The announcement came first on Sunday evening from John Bolton, Trump's�national security advisor, who said the move was "a clear and unmistakable�message to the Iranian regime that any attack on United States interests or on�those of our allies will be met with unrelenting force."


"The United States is not seeking war with the Iranian regime, but we are�fully prepared to respond to any attack, whether by proxy, the Islamic�Revolutionary Guard Corps, or regular Iranian forces," Bolton said.


US officials did not give more details on the alleged threat, and the�Pentagon had already announced in April that the USS Abraham Lincoln had�headed on a "regularly scheduled deployment" out of its base in Norfolk,�Virginia.


Iran's supreme national security council spokesman Keyvan Khosravi�dismissed Bolton's statement, calling it a "clumsy use of an out-of-date event�for psychological warfare."


Based on intelligence, or politics?
The news site Axios said Bolton's warning came after Israel, which has�pushed to isolate Iran, passed along intelligence on a possible plot by Tehran�"against a US target in the Gulf or US allies like Saudi Arabia or the UAE."


Quoting an unnamed Israeli official, Axios said the intelligence was "not�very specific at this stage" but that the "Iranian temperature is on the rise"�due to pressure.


Mark Dubowitz, chief executive of the Foundation for Defense of�Democracies, which advocates a hard line on Iran, said he had heard of a�"spike" in intelligence in recent days about planned attacks.


He believed Iran had given the green-light to Islamist movements Hamas and�Islamic Jihad to fire missiles into Israel in a weekend flare-up to "create a�crisis to distract the US and Israel" from plots elsewhere.


Other observers were much more skeptical of the intentions of Bolton, who�has advocated attacking Iran and enjoyed close ties to the country's formerly�armed opposition before Trump hired him.


�The Trump administration's team of saber-rattling foreign policy advisors�are all but openly shouting their desire for an unauthorized and�unconstitutional war with Iran," said Senator Tom Udall, a Democrat.


"Congress must act immediately to stop this reckless march to war before�it's too late," he tweeted.


The deployment announcement came almost a year to the day after Trump�pulled the United States out of a multinational accord under which Tehran�drastically scaled back its sensitive nuclear work.


"I think this is manufactured by Bolton to try to justify the�administration's very harsh policy toward Iran despite the fact that Iran has�been complying with the nuclear deal," said Barbara Slavin, the director of�the Future of Iran Initiative at the Atlantic Council think tank.


Iran Frustration Mounting


With frustration mounting in Iran over the lack of dividends from the�nuclear accord, the semi-official ISNA news agency said that President Hassan�Rouhani would announce "retaliatory measures" on Wednesday to mark the�anniversary of the US pullout.


The news agency said that Rouhani would invoke sections of the accord under�which Iran can cease some or all of its commitments if other parties fail to�adhere to their part, notably on ending sanctions.


The Trump administration instead has imposed sweeping sanctions on Tehran�and in recent weeks has hit even harder, moving to ban all countries from�buying Iran's oil, its top export, and declaring the Revolutionary Guards to�be a terrorist group�the first such designation of a unit of a foreign�government.


UN inspectors say that Iran has remained in compliance with the nuclear�deal, which is still backed by European powers as well as Democrats seeking to�unseat Trump next year.


Britain, France and Germany have set up a special payments system to let�European businesses operate in Iran and avoid US sanctions, although few firms�have been willing to incur Washington's wrath.