The personnel were under strict medical observation on board the nuclear-powered carrier, which had most recently been taking part in exercises with northern European navies in the Baltic Sea.

“The first cases showed symptoms recently,” the ministry said in a statement. “There are no signs of aggravated cases among the patients.”

The French aircraft carrier would dock in Toulon, southern France, in the next few days, a spokesman for the head of the armed forces told Reuters. It had been due back on April 23.

The Charles de Gaulle set sail for the eastern Mediterranean on Jan. 21 to support French military operations purportedly against militants in Iraq and Syria, before deploying to the Atlantic and then the Baltic.

It has 1,760 personnel on board.

A team equipped to carry out tests for coronavirus infection was on Wednesday due to land on the vessel, which is equipped with its own intensive care facilities.

Last week, the US Navy relieved the aircraft carrier Theodore Roosevelt’s captain of his command, after the leak of a scathing letter he sent to superiors that sought stronger measures for curbing a coronavirus outbreak aboard his vessel.

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Maj. Gen. Salami added that “the enemies seek to eliminate our power through negotiations, so that they can hit us whenever they wish. We have been able to withstand their attack with our strength; we must have the power to put reciprocal pressure against the enemy.”

“We are safe when we are powerful,” the IRGC chief commander noted.

“Twelve years ago… we were looking for a way to put an end to the US carriers capable of carrying warplanes. Only ballistic missiles could do so because cruise missiles were vulnerable due to their speed and low-altitude flight while ballistic missiles could hit the target at a faster speed than supersonic flight and would be difficult to be hit by anti-missile defense.” he added.

“15 years ago this was a dream…while one day we could successfully test fire the missile and we put a target as big as two third of a carrier. The missile precisely hit the target… we were able to change the balance of power…” he later noted.

The top IRGC commander added that Iran has beaten the enemy in the realm of political philosophy because their political philosophy is to loot the other countries’ wealth.

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Rouhani said “the Iranian nation have endured hard months and days of standing up to the enemies, pushing them back step by step.”

Last year, the enemies imposed new sanctions against the Islamic Republic of Iran, sanctions that, as they say, are the maximum pressure on Iran throughout the history, said the President.

He continued “the enemies had a false hope to force the Iranian nation to yield, but the people have resisted heroically against the enemies despite all hardships and problems.”

“The enemy who was saying last year that its goal was to eliminate the system of the Islamic Republic of Iran, today is explicitly saying that it wants nothing to do with the system,” he said.

President Rouhani continued “the enemy who was claiming that it is the greatest military power in the world, is announcing today that it does not seek war. A few months ago, their warships were freely coming and going in the Persian Gulf, but today, they have dropped their anchors 300-400 miles away at international waters.”

Stressing that we have proved that we will not surrender to bullying tactics of greedy powers, he stressed “we follow logic and negotiations with whoever comes to the table with respect and within the framework of international regulations, not those who make an order for negotiations.”

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“The presence of the Americans in the Persian Gulf region has reached its end and they must leave the region”, he also added.

“Their presence is just for show, futile, and deceitful,” he highlighted.

On Sunday, the White House announced it would send the USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier strike group and the bombers into the Persian Gulf to counter Tehran. The USS Abraham Lincoln on Thursday passed through the Suez Canal on its way to the Persian Gulf.

Tensions have raised between Tehran and Washington after Trump administration’s decision in May 2018 to withdraw from the Nuclear Deal, also known as Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), and to re-impose sanctions which were lifted under the JCPOA. US pressure campaign on Iran is not limited to sanctions: it has also put Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) on its list of foreign terrorist organization.

Iran, in response, has designated US Central Command (CENTCOM) in the Middle East as a terrorist organization. After a year since US’ withdrawal from the nuclear deal, Iran announced it would reduce some of its commitments under JCPOA, urging other signatories to comply with their own commitments and stand against the US unilateralism.

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“Major Salami underlined that the US’ dispatching carrier USS Abraham Lincoln (CVN-72) to the regional waters is a psychological warfare aimed at startling Iranian nation and some of officials,” the MP said.

“US war against Iran is impossible since the US does not dare to and is not powerful enough to start it because of Iran’s defensive power and the vulnerability of the US aircraft carrier. The US cannot take such a risk,” Poormokhtar quoted the IRGC chief as saying.

The US has sent a naval strike group led by the Abraham Lincoln carrier to the Middle East as a ‘signal to Iran’, threatening that “any attack on United States interests or on those of our allies will be met with unrelenting force.”

On May 7, the military aide to the Iranian Leader said that US is both ‘unable’ and ‘unwilling’ to wage a military war against Iran and dragging the Middle East region into crisis. There is still little rationality in the US administration to prevent extremist actions such as waging a war against Iran, Brigadier General Hossein Dehghan said in an interview with Alarabiya.

Americans, Israelis and Saudis want to imply that the region is on the threshold of a crisis, but they are well aware that after firing the first missile, the next ones will not be limited to a specific geographical area, added the former Iranian defense minister.

“Americans are unwilling and unable to carry out military action against us … and their unwillingness stems from their inability to drag the region into tension or wage military action against Iran,” he noted.

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 Deputy Coordinator of the Iranian Army said that US naval fleets in the Persian Gulf are under constant watch.

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