Washington/Sydney: US President Donald Trump has urged Iran to come to the table and make a deal on nuclear weapons or risk a second military attack in seven months, which he warned would be “far worse” than the first.
Amid a build-up of US forces in the Middle East, Trump noted that his last warning to Iran was followed by military strikes on key nuclear facilities in June as part of Operation Midnight Hammer.
“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,” Trump wrote on Truth Social.
The US president said a “massive armada” was approaching Iran “with great power, enthusiasm and purpose”.
A strike group led by the USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier was redirected to the region from the Indo-Pacific this month as US-Iranian tensions soared following a bloody crackdown on protests across Iran by its clerical authorities.
Two US officials told Reuters on Monday that the Lincoln and supporting warships had arrived in the Middle East, and it’s thought to be operating somewhere near Oman. The group is also normally accompanied by a nuclear-powered submarine.
Trump said the fleet was larger than the one sent to Venezuela late last year ahead of US forces capturing the country’s then-leader, Nicolás Maduro.
“Like with Venezuela, it is, ready, willing, and able to rapidly fulfil its mission, with speed and violence, if necessary. 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,” he posted.
The strike group is made up of the Lincoln and three guided-missile destroyers: the USS Frank E. Petersen Jr, the USS Spruance and the USS Michael Murphy, which are loaded with Tomahawk land attack cruise missiles.
The Lincoln generally carries 60 to 90 aircraft, with eight squadrons flying F-35C Lightning II stealth jets, F/A-18E/F Super Hornets, EA-18G Growlers, E-2D Hawkeyes, CMV-22B Ospreys and MH-60R/S Seahawks.
According to the Associated Press, the Lincoln strike group has joined three littoral combat ships (LCS) – small, agile combat vessels – that were docked in Bahrain on Friday, as well as two other US Navy destroyers already operating in the Persian Gulf.
The US has also deployed F-15E jet fighters to a base in Jordan, and is moving Patriot and THAAD (terminal high altitude area defence) air-defence systems into the region to protect American installations and its partners from Iranian retaliation, The Wall Street Journal reported.
Analysts of flight-tracking data have also identified dozens of US military cargo aircraft heading to the region, the Associated Press reported. The BBC said drones and P-8 Poseidon spy planes had been seen operating near Iranian airspace on the FlightRadar24 tracking website.
The US already has a military presence about 50,000-strong in the region and London’s Telegraph estimates the Lincoln’s arrival would add about another 5700 service members.
Matthew Savill, director of military sciences at the defence think tank Rusi, told the BBC that with its current assets in the region, the US “could probably go almost anywhere in Iran and strike almost anything, apart from the most deeply buried facilities” – which would probably require B-2 bombers.
In addition to the US build-up, the United Kingdom’s Ministry of Defence said last week that four RAF Typhoons had been sent to Qatar in a “defensive capacity”.
A US official told Reuters that Trump had not made up his mind on a military strike and that the Iranian government’s weakened state made it advantageous for the US to press for a deal on denuclearisation and other issues.
Any military action from the United States would result in Iran targeting the US, Israel and those who supported 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”.
Reuters and staff reporters
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