DUBAI, May 10 (Reuters) - 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. (Reporting by Dubai newsroom; Editing by Hugh Lawson)

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