“Hopefully Iran will quickly ‘Come to the Table’ and negotiate a fair and equitable deal – NO NUCLEAR WEAPONS – one that is good for all parties. Time is running out, it is truly of the essence!” Trump wrote on social media.
Amid a buildup of US forces in the Middle East, the Republican president, who pulled out of world powers’ 2015 nuclear deal with Tehran during his first White House term, noted that his last warning to Iran was followed by a military strike in June.
“The next attack will be far worse! Don’t make that happen again,” Trump wrote. He repeated that a US “armada” was heading toward the Islamic Republic.
Iran’s armed forces ready to respond
Any military action from the United States will result in Iran targeting the US, Israel and those who support it, Ali Shamkhani, an adviser to Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said in a post on X on Wednesday.
Iranian foreign minister Abbas Araqchi warned on X that Iran’s armed forces “are prepared – with their fingers on the trigger – to immediately and powerfully respond to ANY aggression.”
“At the same time,” Araqchi added, “Iran has always welcomed a mutually beneficial, fair and equitable NUCLEAR DEAL – on equal footing, and free from coercion, threats, and intimidation – which ensures Iran’s rights to PEACEFUL nuclear technology, and guarantees NO NUCLEAR WEAPONS.”
Araqchi said earlier he had not been in contact with US special envoy Steve Witkoff in recent days or requested negotiations, state media reported on Wednesday.
Trump says warships approaching Iran
Trump said a US naval force headed by the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln was approaching Iran. Two US officials told Reuters on Monday the Lincoln and supporting warships had arrived in the Middle East.
The warships started moving from the Asia-Pacific region last week as US-Iranian tensions soared following a bloody crackdown on protests across Iran by its clerical authorities in recent weeks.
Trump has repeatedly threatened to intervene if Iran continued to kill protesters, but the countrywide demonstrations over economic privations and political repression have since abated.
He has said the United States would act if Tehran resumed its nuclear program after the June airstrikes by Israeli and US forces on key nuclear installations.
Earlier on Wednesday, US secretary of state Marco Rubio told a congressional committee the Iranian government is probably weaker than it has ever been and its economy is in collapse. He predicted that street protests will spark up again.
But according to multiple US intelligence reports, while the economic conditions that sparked the protests remain, the upper ranks of the Iranian government appear to be intact with no major fractures, two people familiar with the matter said.
The European Union was poised to include Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps on its list of terrorist organisations after France said on Wednesday it would support the move.
EU foreign ministers will meet in Brussels on Thursday and are due to sign off on new sanctions in response to Iran’s crackdown on the protests.