By Jack Phillips
President Donald Trump on Thursday appeared to confirm in a post on social media that a second aircraft carrier is being prepared to be sent to the Middle East as talks with Iran over the country’s nuclear facilities continue.
The president shared a Wall Street Journal report citing unnamed U.S. officials that said a U.S. aircraft carrier group is being prepared for deployment in the region to ramp up pressure on Iran if negotiations with the country fail.
Trump did not offer any additional comment, re-posting the report’s headline. Neither the WSJ article nor Trump said what carrier group would be sent.
Earlier this week, the president told Axios that he was considering sending another carrier to the Middle East ahead of a meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Washington.
“We have an armada that is heading there and another one might be going,” he said.
Talks between Iran and the United States started in Oman earlier this month over Tehran’s nuclear program as Trump warned that the United States could take more action against the country’s Islamist regime, while Iran has vowed to retaliate.
In a post on Wednesday, Trump reiterated his blunt warning to Iran and said he wants the negotiations to persist after meeting with Netanyahu.
“There was nothing definitive reached other than I insisted that negotiations with Iran continue to see whether or not a Deal can be consummated,” Trump said in a social media post after the meeting with Netanyahu. “If it can, I let the Prime Minister know that will be a preference.”
The president then issued another warning.
“If it cannot, we will just have to see what the outcome will be. Last time Iran decided that they were better off not making a Deal, and they were hit with Midnight Hammer,” he said, referring to U.S. military airstrikes that targeted the country’s nuclear facilities over the summer.
Negotiations with Iran also come weeks after protests roiled the country in combination with a weeks-long internet blackout, as rights groups said that thousands were killed by the regime. At one point last month, Trump said he would offer support to demonstrators and urged them to keep up their movement.
Trump said on reaching an agreement with Iran in a Tuesday interview with Fox Business Network’s Larry Kudlow: “I think they’d be foolish if they didn’t. We took out their nuclear power last time, and we’ll have to see if we take out more this time.”
“It’s got to be a good deal,” he said. “No nuclear weapons; no missiles.”
Earlier this month, Trump offered a direct warning to the country’s leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, over a possible deal and said he should be “very worried” if the talks fail.
“Those beautiful B-2 bombers went in and they hit their target … and obliterated it,” Trump told NBC News last week, referring to U.S. heavy strategic stealth bombers and the Midnight Hammer campaign. Iran, he said, would have been close to producing a nuclear weapon if the United States had not acted at the time.
The Epoch Times contacted the Department of War for comment on Thursday.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
