Trump says he believes Iran wants to make deal as he extols size of US ‘armada’ | Iran

Donald Trump has said he believes Tehran wants to make a deal to head off a regional conflict, as he claimed the US “armada” near Iran was bigger than the task force deployed to topple Venezuela’s leader.

“We have a large armada, flotilla, call it whatever you want, heading toward Iran right now, even larger than what we had in Venezuela,” the US president told reporters on Friday.

“Hopefully we’ll make a deal. If we do make a deal, that’s good. If we don’t make a deal, we’ll see what happens.”

He declined to say whether he planned a repeat of the military operation in Venezuela in which US forces captured and renditioned the president, Nicolás Maduro.

“I don’t want to talk about anything having to do with what I’m doing militarily,” he said.

His comments came after Iran’s foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi said Tehran was ready to negotiate with the US, but only if talks were not under duress and did not extend to Iran’s missile programme.

After meetings with Turkish diplomats, Araghchi said Iran was “ready to begin negotiations if they take place on an equal footing, based on mutual interests and mutual respect”. He said there were no immediate plans to meet US officials, adding: “I want to state firmly that Iran’s defensive and missile capabilities will never be subject to negotiation.”

Araghchi said: “The Islamic Republic of Iran, just as it is ready for negotiations, is also ready for war.”

Trump said on Thursday he hoped to avoid military action, even as the US deployed another warship to the Middle East, joining the USS Abraham Lincoln and several guided-missile destroyers.

But his precise objectives remain unclear. Speaking at the premiere of the documentary Melania, the US president told reporters Iran had to do “two things” to avoid military action. “Number one, no nuclear. And number two, stop killing protesters,” saying that “they are killing them by the thousands”.

He added: “We have a lot of very big, very powerful ships sailing to Iran right now, and it would be great if we didn’t have to use them.”

Iran has blamed the US and Israel for the protests that erupted in late December over economic grievances, and were brutally suppressed. Activist groups estimate as many as 30,000 people were killed in the ensuing crackdown.

The Turkish foreign minister, Hakan Fidan, said the resumption of talks between Tehran and Washington over Iran’s nuclear programme was “vital for reducing regional tensions”. Speaking alongside Araghchi, he claimed Israel was pushing for the US to attack Iran, and urged Washington to “act with common sense and not allow this to happen”.

In a call with Iran’s president, Masoud Pezeshkian, Turkey’s president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, said he was willing to act as a mediator between Iran and the US.

From Iran’s perspective, the US is piling ever more demands on Tehran that if all were implemented would spell the end of its sovereignty.

Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff has called for an end to Iran’s nuclear enrichment programme, the transfer of its existing stock of highly enriched uranium out of the country, limits on Iran’s missile programme and an end to support for proxy groups in countries such as Lebanon, Iraq and Yemen.

Araghchi held separate phone calls with his counterparts from Qatar, Egypt, the United Arab Emirates, Oman and Turkey. All the Arab states have insisted their air ground facilities cannot be used by the US to attack Iran.

In Turkey, Araghchi criticised Thursday’s decision by the EU, likely to be followed by the UK, to proscribe the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) as a terrorist organisation.

He said: “The truth is that Europe is a declining continent and has lost its role on the international level and is losing it more and more every day, and it is surprising that they themselves are fuelling this process. This shows that Europe has neither a correct understanding of the international situation, nor a correct understanding of the conditions in our region, nor a correct understanding of its own interests. The decision they made was a major strategic mistake.”

Araghchi did not spell out what reprisals were being considered, but the UK Foreign Office has always worried such a move would lead Iran to break off diplomatic relations. But Ali Larijani, the secretary of Iran’s national security council, said in future Tehran would treat the armies of Europe as terrorists.

The Iranian supreme leader’s representative in the IRGC said the European action would have serious consequences for the EU.

On Friday, the US followed the EU in imposing sanctions against Iran’s interior minister, accusing Eskandar Momeni of repressing the nationwide protests. The sanctions come as anger grows inside Iran that the supposedly reformist government allowed such large-scale killings.

In a statement, the Reform Front, a reformist umbrella body, called for “an independent fact-finding committee to investigate this unprecedented disaster and present a transparent and candid report to the Iranian nation”.

It also called on the judiciary to refrain from “hasty rulings” against detainees, and said bereaved families must be allowed to freely mourn protesters who were killed in the crackdown.