Trump considers sending ‘armada’ to Middle East
US President Donald Trump is considering sending another aircraft carrier to the Middle East amid the conflict with Iran.
“We’ve got a fleet that’s going there, and another one can go too,” Trump said in an interview with the Axios news portal on Tuesday.
He added that he was “considering” sending another carrier strike group.
On Friday, representatives from Tehran and Washington began new talks under tight security in Oman, which mediated through mediation.
Trump said the talks went “very well” and announced that the negotiations would continue.
The new negotiations come after serious mass protests in Iran that were brutally suppressed by security forces.
Trump then threatened the leadership with military intervention and strengthened the US military presence in the region, including sending the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln.
However, now there is talk of a new agreement regarding Iran’s controversial nuclear program.
The Iranian administration is skeptical about negotiations with its arch-enemy, the United States.
Washington and Tehran held talks on Iran’s nuclear program last year, but talks stalled after the United States demanded that the Iranian government completely stop enriching uranium.
Just a day before the start of the sixth round of talks, scheduled for June 2025, Israel attacked Iran, prompting counter-attacks from Tehran.
Less than a week later, the US military joined the war and bombed key nuclear facilities in the Islamic Republic. Trump said that Iran’s nuclear facilities were completely destroyed in the attacks.
“We’re either going to make a deal or we’re going to have to do something very difficult like last time,” Trump told Axios.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is expected to meet with Trump in Washington on Wednesday to discuss negotiations with Iran.
Trump will receive Netanyahu at the White House at 11am (3am AEDT on Thursday), a senior government official told dpa.
Israel demands that any US deal with Iran also addresses the Islamic Republic’s missile program and its support for militant groups in the region. The leadership in Tehran has recently publicly rejected such demands.
