Trump says he believes negotiations with Iran will be ‘successful’ as he confirms USS Gerald R Ford deployment.
President Donald Trump says that he is sending a second aircraft carrier to the Middle East as the United States increases pressure on Iran over its nuclear and ballistic missile programmes.
Speaking at the White House on Friday, Trump confirmed that the USS Gerald R Ford would be leaving the Caribbean for the Middle East “very soon” as tensions remain high following indirect talks in Oman last week.
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“If we need it, we’ll have it ready, a very big force,” said Trump, adding that he believed negotiations would be “successful” while warning it would be a “bad day for Iran” if the country failed to make a deal.
Later, Trump said a change of government in Iran would be the “best thing that could happen”.
“For 47 years, they’ve been talking and talking and talking. In the meantime, we’ve lost a lot of lives,” he said, in an apparent reference to Tehran’s crackdown on recent antigovernment protests that left thousands dead.
The imminent departure of the Gerald R Ford is part of an ongoing buildup of military hardware in the region, with the Abraham Lincoln carrier, several guided-missile destroyers, fighter jets and surveillance aircraft sent in recent weeks.
Trump’s comments come days after he met Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Washington, with the latter saying a “good deal” was expected while voicing reservations if any agreement did not also curb Iran’s ballistic missile programme. Tehran has publicly rejected US pressure to discuss the missiles.
Netanyahu has repeatedly called for further military action since Israel’s 12-day war against Iran in June, which the US briefly joined by attacking three Iranian nuclear sites, in a military operation dubbed “Midnight Hammer”.
Trump at the time said the US attacks had “totally obliterated” the nuclear facilities.
The indirect US-Iran talks were the first to be held since the June conflict, which halted previous rounds of negotiations between Tehran and Washington over potentially replacing the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), which Trump ditched during his first term in office.
Risk of escalation
The JCPOA, a deal reached between Iran, the US and several European powers, saw Tehran curtail its nuclear programme in exchange for sanctions relief.
Following Trump’s unilateral withdrawal in 2018, Tehran subsequently began enriching uranium beyond the limits set out in the agreement, though it has repeatedly denied Western claims it is seeking a nuclear weapon.
Upon taking office for a second time in January, Trump initially sought a new nuclear deal with Iran, but soon adopted a zero-enrichment policy long dismissed by Iranian negotiators as a non-starter.
As the latest attempts at negotiations continue, United Nations nuclear watchdog chief Rafael Grossi has had trouble getting Iran to agree on inspections of sites targeted in the 12-day war.
Grossi, who heads the International Atomic Energy Agency, told the Munich Security Conference that inspectors had returned to Iran after the 12-day war but had not been able to visit any of the sites targeted.
Grossi said dialogue with Iran since the inspectors’ return last year had been “imperfect and complicated and extremely difficult, but it’s there”.
The US president’s comments on Friday confirm his earlier indication that he was considering sending the Gerald R Ford, which has a nuclear reactor on board and can hold more than 75 military aircraft, to the region.
Gulf Arab nations have warned any attack could escalate into another regional conflict in a region still reeling from Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza.