CARRIER AT RISK? U.S. shoots down Iranian drone near USS Abraham Lincoln

Scott Ritter discusses Iran's capabilities to defend itself from attack by U.S.

The U.S. announced Tuesday that it shot down an Iranian drone that was approaching the USS Abraham Lincoln carrier, which has been moved to the Indian Ocean over the threat of another war between the U.S. and Iran.

Last week, Scott Ritter, the UN weapons inspector, spoke to Glenn Diesen about what he would do if he were a decision-maker in Iran to respond to the American armada steaming toward the Middle East in preparation for another war between the U.S. and Iran.

“If I were the decision-maker in Iran, the Abraham Lincoln would already be sunk, American bases would be destroyed, Israel would be eliminated, and I’d be carrying out massive operations against the Kurds in Iraq” and other enemy groups in the region, he told Glenn Diesen’s podcast.

Ritter spoke to The Trends Journal on Monday and said he believed that if Iran successfully sank the carrier, the U.S. would likely carry out a nuclear strike on the country.

“They [the Iranians] don’t know that it [a nuclear strike] is coming,” he said. He continued, “I believe I’m right. But they don’t know that. But they’re not going to sit there and take it. They’ve already said they’re not playing that game.”

He said Iran will not send the U.S. a warning like it did when it struck the Al-Udeid Air Base in Qatar in the summer.

“They’re just going to take it out,” he said. “And if the USS Abraham Lincoln launches strikes, it becomes a legitimate target of war.”

Al-Monitor reported that a U.S. F-35 shot down an Iranian drone in the early hours on Tuesday near the carrier.

“The Iranian drone continued to fly toward the ship despite de-escalatory measures taken by US forces operating in international waters,” Capt. Timothy Hawkins, a CENTCOM spokesman, said in a statement.

Axios also reported that Iranian Revolutionary Guards fast gunboats “attempted to board a U.S.-flagged commercial ship near the Strait of Hormuz.”

“Two IRGC boats and an Iranian Mohajer drone approached M/V Stena Imperative at high speeds and threatened to board and seize the tanker,” CENTCOM said in a statement.

Hawkins said in the statement that the USS McFaul, a guided-missile destroyer, responded and escorted the ship with defensive air support from the U.S. Air Force.

“The situation de-escalated as a result, and the U.S.-flagged tanker is proceeding safely,” he said.