US President Donald Trump has said that the United States has an “armada” headed toward Iran, renewing warnings to Tehran over the killing of protesters and the potential restart of its nuclear programme.
Trump’s comments came on Thursday as he returned from the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, and were part of an escalating standoff following internal unrest in Iran and tensions over its nuclear activities.
US officials, speaking on condition of anonymity to news agency Reuters, said the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln and several guided-missile destroyers are expected to arrive in the Middle East in the coming days.
Additional air-defense systems are also being considered to protect US forces and bases in the region, underscoring Washington’s bolstered military options.
“We have a lot of ships going that direction, just in case … I’d rather not see anything happen, but we’re watching them very closely,” Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One.
He reiterated that the deployment was intended to deter Iranian actions and that the US “might not have to use it.”
‘We have an armada. We have a massive fleet heading in that direction. Maybe we won’t have to use it. We’ll see”, Trump said.
The US President also renewed warnings to Tehran against restarting its nuclear programme, saying the US would act again if Iran resumed enrichment activities.
“If they try to do it again, they have to go to another area. We’ll hit them there too, just as easily,” he said.
He also repeated his claim that Iran halted nearly 840 planned executions of protesters after his threats.
“I said: ‘If you hang those people, you’re going to be hit harder than you’ve ever been hit. It’ll make what we did to your Iran nuclear (program) look like peanuts,'” Trump said.
Trump’s statement comes amid heightened tensions following a nationwide protest movement in Iran that erupted in late December over economic hardship and has been met with a severe crackdown, resulting in thousands of deaths, according to rights groups and Iranian sources.
Iran says ‘finger on the trigger’
Iran has responded firmly to rising US pressure. General Mohammad Pakpour, the commander of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), warned the United States and Israel against “miscalculations,” saying the Guards had their “finger on the trigger” and were prepared to carry out orders from the country’s supreme leader if threatened.
“The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and dear Iran have their finger on the trigger, more prepared than ever, ready to carry out the orders and measures of the supreme commander-in-chief,” he said, as per news agency AFP.
