Iran cleric says US 'fleet can be destroyed with one missile'

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

The carrier Abraham Lincoln, deployed by 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.