A senior Iranian cleric said in a Friday prayers sermon that the United States’ navy fleet could be “destroyed with one missile,” as a US aircraft carrier headed to the Gulf, the semi-official news agency ISNA reported.

 

The carrier Abraham Lincoln, deployed by US President Donald Trump’s administration to the Middle East as a warning to Iran, passed through Egypt’s Suez Canal on Thursday, the Suez Canal Authority said.

 

“Ayatollah Yousef Tabatabai-Nejad,... referring to the Abraham Lincoln warship heading to the Gulf, said: ‘Their billion (-dollar) fleet can be destroyed with one missile,’” ISNA reported from the central city of Isfahan.

 

On Thursday, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo threatened a “swift and decisive” US response to any attack by Iran, in the latest of a series of escalating statements and actions.

 

“The regime in Tehran should understand that any attacks by them or their proxies of any identity against US interests or citizens will be answered with a swift and decisive US response,” Pompeo said in a statement.