Trump says Iran seeks talks as US "armada" reaches Middle East
Shafaq News– Washington/ Tehran
US President Donald Trump said on Monday that Iran is seeking negotiations, as the United States deploys a large naval force to the Middle East.
Trump told Axios that Washington now has a “big armada next to Iran, bigger than Venezuela,” referring to the USS Abraham Lincoln carrier strike group, which entered the US Central Command area on January 26. However, he did not make a final decision on military action.
Meanwhile, The Wall Street Journal, citing US officials, reported that Washington has also deployed fighter jets to a base in Jordan and transferred additional air and missile defense systems to the region to protect US forces and allies from “potential Iranian retaliation.”
Washington previously weighed strikes following Iran’s response to protests that erupted in December 2025, before opting to delay and reinforce US military posture instead. Rights group Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA) estimated more than 5,000 deaths and tens of thousands of arrests during the unrest, figures that remain difficult to independently verify due to prolonged internet disruptions.
Iranian officials, including Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, have expressed readiness to negotiate but have not accepted US demands, which include removing all enriched uranium, limiting long-range missile development, ending support for regional armed groups –Lebanon’s Hezbollah, Iraq’s armed factions, and Yemen’s Houthis (Ansarallah).
Tehran has also warned that any US strike, whether limited or wide-scale, would be treated as an “all-out war.” Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps commander Mohammad Pakpour said Iran has its “finger on the trigger.”
Read more: Washington holds back: Calculated pressure, not war, shapes US policy toward Iran
