Senior Iranian cleric Ayatollah Yousef Tabatabai-Nejad has dismissed the US carrier group's deployment in the Middle East, suggesting that the fleet could be easily destroyed in the event of war.
"Their billion-dollar fleet can be destroyed with one missile," Tabatabai-Nejad said, speaking in Isfahan on Friday, Reuters has reported, citing local media.
"If they attempt any move, they will [face] dozens of missiles because at that time government officials won't be in charge to act cautiously, but instead things will be in the hands of our beloved leader," the cleric added, referring to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
Earlier, US Department of Defence spokesperson Cmdr. Rebecca Rebarich told Sputnik that the USS Abraham Lincoln had arrived in the US Navy's Middle Eastern area of operations on Thursday, with the deployment following the arrival of nuclear-capable B-52 bombers in the region a day earlier.
Iran dismissed the carrier group's deployment as an "unskillful" attempt at waging "psychological war against Iran."
Earlier, US officials told CNN that Iran was reportedly moving short-range ballistic missiles by sea in the Persian Gulf area ahead of the US carrier group's arrival. Tehran has not commented on the reports.
Long-standing tensions between Iran and the US escalated again in recent weeks after the US refused to renew waivers to secondary sanctions on several major importers of Iranian crude oil. Iran announced Wednesday that it would discontinue some of its commitments under the nuclear deal and would resume enriching uranium at higher levels after a 60 day period. Washington reneged on the nuclear deal in May 2018, slapping Tehran with a series of increasingly tough banking and energy sanctions in a bid to cripple the country's economy.