Trump threatens Iran with attacks that would be more severe than those in June if the country does not negotiate a nuclear deal.

President Trump threatened Iran on Wednesday with an attack “much worse” than the one he carried out at the country’s nuclear sites in June if Tehran does not agree to a deal to curb its nuclear program.

“A vast armada is headed toward Iran. It is moving rapidly with great power, enthusiasm, and purpose. It is a larger fleet, led by the massive aircraft carrier Abraham Lincoln, than the fleet Venezuela sent. Like Venezuela, it is ready, willing, and able to accomplish its mission rapidly, with speed and violence when necessary.” Trump made this statement in a post on his Truth Social platform. “Hopefully Iran will soon ‘come to the table’ and negotiate a fair and equitable deal – no nuclear weapons – that will be beneficial for all parties. Time is running out; the present really is of the essence!”

Mr. Trump stated that if Iran does not reach a deal with the United States, the US could launch an attack that would be more severe than the previous attack in June, which targeted several nuclear sites with bunker-busting bombs.

“As I told Iran once before, make a deal! Iran did not comply, leading to ‘Operation Midnight Hammer,’ which resulted in massive destruction for the country. The next attack will be much worse! Don’t do it again. Thank you for paying attention to this matter!” Mr Trump said on Wednesday.

As of Tuesday, a U.S. A U.S. official confirmed to CBS News that the USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier strike group, which consists of one carrier and three destroyers, has penetrated into the Central Command area of responsibility of the US Army, including the Middle East and the waters around Iran, although it did not necessarily reach its intended final deployment location. The USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier strike group entered the US Army’s Central Command area of responsibility, which includes the Middle East and the waters around Iran, but it did not necessarily reach its intended final deployment location.

While Mr Trump has issued threats to Iran for weeks and the Lincoln Strike Group is close to the region, his rhetoric has largely been about Iran brutally quashing mass street protests. For the first time in a Truth Social post on Wednesday, he linked the major deployment of the US Navy in the Persian Gulf region to the stalled nuclear talks.

Iran’s mission to the United Nations in New York issued a social media post on Wednesday, responding to Mr Trump’s statement that the country is “ready for dialogue based on mutual respect and interests – but if pushed, it will defend itself and respond like never before!”

“The last time the US made a mistake in the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, it wasted more than $7 trillion and lost more than 7,000 American lives,” the Iranian mission said.

Last week, he said an “armada” of US warships was headed to the Middle East as he monitored the Iranian regime’s response to mass protests that began in late December.

“We have many ships going in that direction,” he told reporters Thursday. He called it a “good sign” that Iranian authorities had decided not to execute protesters, adding, “We have an armada going in that direction and we probably won’t have to use it.”

Iran’s army commander on Wednesday reiterated the recent statements of the country’s leaders and said that Iran is ready for any attack by its enemies.

“The Islamic Republic of Iran Army is always ready to face any threat, and if anything happens, the enemy will definitely suffer serious losses,” Rear Admiral Habibollah Sayyari, chief of staff and deputy coordinator of the Islamic Republic of Iran Army, said on Wednesday, according to Iranian state media. “We stand against any threat on land, air and sea, and the Army is always ready to face any threat.”

Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi stated on Wednesday that he was in “constant contact” with his counterparts in other regional countries, including US ally Qatar, and they agreed that any new military action against Tehran would destabilise the Middle East.

“Last night, I spoke to Qatar’s foreign minister,” Iranian media quoted Araghichi as saying. “The prevailing view throughout the region is that, given the nature of the US presence here, any military threat would create instability in the entire region.”

Araghchi was quoted as telling reporters on the sidelines of a weekly Cabinet meeting in Tehran that he had not had any contact with US special envoy Steve Witkoff recently and that Iran had not sought new talks with Washington, although he said the two sides remained in touch through mediators.

“Our position is clear that pursuing diplomacy through military threats cannot be effective,” he said. “If they want negotiations to take place, they will have to avoid threats, excessive demands and raising illogical issues. Negotiations have their principles and should be based on equal footing and mutual respect.”

Iran has been subject to an international nuclear agreement since 2015.

requiring it to have external monitoring of its enrichment activities and set a limit on the level of uranium it could enrich by 2018, when Mr Trump took America out of this agreement during his first term.

He had long been critical of the agreement, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), which was negotiated by President Obama’s administration and signed by Iran, the US, China, France, Russia, Britain, Germany, and the EU, as he believed it was too lenient towards Tehran.

Despite European efforts to keep the agreement viable, the US’s unilateral withdrawal prompted Iran to abandon adherence to the agreement’s terms and its nuclear program. The number of violations has increased in the last half of the decade.