Trump threatens Iran with "far worse" attack than June strikes if it doesn't negotiate a nuclear deal
President Trump threatened Iran on Wednesday with an attack "far worse" than the strikes he ordered against the country's nuclear sites in June if Tehran doesn't agree to a deal to curb its nuclear program.
"A massive Armada is heading to Iran. It is moving quickly, with great power, enthusiasm, and purpose. It is a larger fleet, headed by the great Aircraft Carrier Abraham Lincoln, than that sent to Venezuela. Like with Venezuela, it is, ready, willing, and able to rapidly fulfill its mission, with speed and violence, if necessary," Mr. Trump said in a post on his Truth Social platform. "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!"
Mr. Trump said that if Iran did not come to an agreement with the United States, the U.S. could carry out an attack worse than its previous one in June, when it hit multiple nuclear sites with bunker busting bombs.
"As I told Iran once before, MAKE A DEAL! They didn't, and there was 'Operation Midnight Hammer,' a major destruction of Iran. The next attack will be far worse! Don't make that happen again. Thank you for your attention to this matter!" Mr. Trump said Wednesday.
As of Tuesday, a U.S. official confirmed to CBS News that the USS Abraham Lincoln Aircraft Carrier Strike Group, which includes the carrier and three destroyers, had crossed into the U.S. military's Central Command area of responsibility, which includes the Middle East and the waters around Iran, though it had not necessarily reached its intended final deployment location.
While Mr. Trump has issued threats to Iran for weeks, and as the Lincoln strike group nears the region, his rhetoric had largely been about Iran's brutal quashing of massive street protests. The Truth Social post on Wednesday was the first time he had linked the major U.S. Navy deployment in the Persian Gulf region to the stalled nuclear negotiations.
Iran's mission to the United Nations in New York said in a social media post on Wednesday, after Mr. Trump's post, that the country "stands ready for dialogue based on mutual respect and interests—BUT IF PUSHED, IT WILL DEFEND ITSELF AND RESPOND LIKE NEVER BEFORE!"
"Last time the U.S. blundered into wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, it squandered over $7 trillion and lost more than 7,000 American lives," the Iranian mission said.
Last week, he said the "armada" of U.S. warships was heading for the Middle East as he continued to watch the Iranian regime's response to the massive protests that began in late December.
"We have a lot of ships going that direction just in case," he told reporters on Thursday. He called it a "good sign" that Iranian authorities had decided not to hang protesters, adding: "We have an armada heading that direction and maybe we won't have to use it."
Iran's army commander reiterated recent statements on Wednesday from the country's leaders, saying Iran was ready for any attack by its enemies.
"The Islamic Republic of Iran Army is always ready to confront any threat, and if anything happens, the enemy will certainly suffer severe damage," Rear Admiral Habibollah Sayyari, Chief of Staff and Deputy Coordinator of the Islamic Republic of Iran Army, said Wednesday, according to Iranian state media. "We stand against any threat on land, in the air, and at sea, and the army is always ready to confront any threat."
Iran's Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, meanwhile, said Wednesday that he was in "continuous contact" with his counterparts in other regional countries, including U.S. ally Qatar, and that they agreed any new military action against Tehran would destabilize the Middle East.
"Last night, I spoke with the Foreign Minister of Qatar," Araghichi was quoted as saying by Iranian media. "The prevailing view across the region is that any military threat, given the nature of the U.S. presence here, would lead to instability throughout the entire region."
Araghchi was quoted as telling reporters on the sidelines of a weekly cabinet meeting in Tehran that he had had no contact with U.S. special envoy Steve Witkoff in recent days, and that Iran had not sought new negotiations with Washington, though he added that the two sides remained in touch through intermediaries.
"Our position is precisely that pursuing diplomacy through military threats cannot be effective," he said. "If they want negotiations to take place, they must set aside threats, excessive demands, and the raising of illogical issues. Negotiations have their own principles and must be conducted on an equal footing and based on mutual respect."
Iran had been bound by an international nuclear agreement from 2015, which required it to submit to outside monitoring of its enrichment activities and a cap on the level to which it could enrich uranium, until 2018, when Mr. Trump pulled the U.S. out of the agreement during his first term.
He had long been critical of the agreement, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), which was negotiated by President Obama's administration and signed by Iran, the U.S., China, France, Russia, the U.K., Germany and the European Union, as too lax on Tehran.
Despite European efforts to keep the deal viable, the unilateral U.S. withdrawal prompted Iran to incrementally abandon adherence to the terms of the agreement, and its nuclear program has ramped up over the last half of a decade.