The USS Abraham Lincoln and its carrier strike group entered the Middle East region on Monday “to promote regional security and stability” amid tensions with Iran, U.S. Central Command stated.
The announcement came as U.S. President Donald Trump told Axios that while he dispatched a “big armada” amid the mounting pressure with Tehran, he believes the mullahs still “want to make a deal” that would curb the regime’s nuclear and ballistic missile programs.
“We have a big armada next to Iran. Bigger than Venezuela,” the president told Axios‘s Barak Ravid in an interview on Monday.
Trump declined to tell Ravid which options his national security team had presented to him or which he currently favored. At the same time, he said that diplomacy with the Islamic Republic remained an option.
“They called on numerous occasions. They want to talk,” Trump said.
Anonymous U.S. officials told Axios that any deal with Iran would have to include the removal of all enriched uranium from the country, a ban on future enrichment, a cap on its stockpile of long-range missiles, and a “change” in its policy of supporting regional terrorist proxies.
The Iranians have said they’re willing to engage in negotiations but have not signaled willingness to accept Washington’s terms, Axios reported.
According to the outlet, some of Trump’s more hawkish advisers have urged him to enforce his red line after the regime killed thousands of protesters. Other members of the president’s circle have questioned what strikes would achieve and shown interest in using the regime’s weakness to push for a diplomatic agreement, the report noted.
Adm. Brad Cooper, commander of CENTCOM, visited the Jewish state as an official guest of Israel Defense Forces Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir on Saturday. Sources told Axios that the two discussed military planning and joint defensive efforts to counter an Iranian response.
Trump, addressing journalists aboard Air Force One on Friday, warned that “We have a big force going toward Iran; I’d rather not see anything happen, but we’re watching them very closely.”
He reiterated that his repeated threats prevented the execution of 837 people whom Iranian authorities arrested during the nationwide protests that shook the Islamic Republic earlier in January.
In a Jan. 2 post on the Truth Social platform, Trump threatened that the U.S. was “locked and loaded and ready to go” if Iran killed anti-regime protesters, which he said was the “custom” of the Islamic Republic.
He has since repeatedly escalated his rhetoric, including on Jan. 4, when Trump told reporters that the regime would be “hit very hard” if it began killing protesters. Trump has also called for “new leadership” in Iran.
Israeli defense officials believe that the U.S. military buildup could be a platform for carrying out a strike or as leverage for reaching a new nuclear deal with Tehran, Kan News reported over the weekend.
Israeli security forces have intensified their preparations for a possible U.S. strike, which could lead to an Iranian response against the Jewish state. A scenario being discussed is a “miscalculation” by the Iranians that will prompt them to attack Israel, Channel 12 News reported.
