U.S. President Donald Trump said on Jan. 26 that Iran has contacted his administration multiple times to seek talks, as the United States moved an aircraft carrier strike group into Middle East waters and expanded sanctions targeting Tehran’s oil trade.
“They want to make a deal,” Trump said in an interview published by Axios. “I know so. They called on numerous occasions. They want to talk.”
The president declined to discuss what options his national security advisers had presented or whether he favored them, according to Axios.
Trump confirmed his decision to dispatch a U.S. aircraft carrier to waters near Iran.
“We have a big armada next to Iran,” he said. “Bigger than Venezuela.”
U.S. Central Command said in a Jan. 26 post on X that the Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier strike group is “currently deployed to the Middle East to promote regional security and stability.”
“Sailors aboard USS Abraham Lincoln (CVN 72) perform routine maintenance as the aircraft carrier sails in the Indian Ocean, Jan. 26,” U.S. Central Command said.
Last week, Trump told reporters on Air Force One that Washington deployed its Navy in the direction of Iran “just in case,” as he has repeatedly warned the Iranian regime not to execute protesters or face the wrath of the U.S. military.
The death toll since the start of the protests in Iran has risen to 6,126, according to aggregated data compiled by U.S.-based Human Rights Activists News Agency on Jan. 26.
“Of these, 5,777 were protesters, 86 were children under the age of 18, 214 were forces affiliated with the government, and 49 were non-protesters or civilians,” the Human Rights Activists News Agency said. “The number of deaths still under investigation stands at 17,091.”
The Epoch Times is unable to independently verify the figures.
Trump has previously warned that if Iran executes protesters, the United States will “take very strong action.”
Rising Tensions
In addition to a 25 percent tariff on all countries trading with Iran, announced on Jan. 12, the United States took further action on Jan. 23 “to deny the Iranian regime the resources to oppress its people.”
Tommy Pigott, spokesperson for the U.S. State Department, said the Department of the Treasury has imposed sanctions on eight entities and nine vessels in the Iranian regime’s shadow fleet.
“This latest action will further restrict Iran’s ability to export petroleum and petroleum products through obscure and fraudulent mechanisms, and will further constrain its ability to bankroll the repression of Iranians and international malign behavior,” Pigott said.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi wrote in a Jan. 20 op-ed in The Wall Street Journal that Iran will fire “back with everything” it has if it comes under “renewed attack.”
Addressing the protests, Araghchi said the “violent phase of the unrest lasted less than 72 hours” and blamed armed demonstrators for the bloodshed. He accused Washington of pursuing a long list of hostile actions against Iran, from sanctions to cyberoperations.
“Iran’s message to President Trump is clear,” Araghchi wrote. “The U.S. has tried every conceivable hostile act against Iran … all of which failed. It is time to think differently. Try respect, which will allow us to advance farther than one may believe.”
The op-ed followed previous comments by Iranian leader Ali Khamenei, who had suggested that Trump would fall like historical figures Pharaoh and Nimrod and former Iranian monarch Mohammad Reza Pahlavi.
