Trump said a US “armada” was heading toward the Gulf and that Washington was watching Iran closely, even after downplaying the prospect of imminent military action and saying Tehran appeared interested in talks.
– The prospect of immediate American action seemed to recede in recent days, with both sides insisting on giving diplomacy a chance.
– ” The United States was sending a “massive fleet” toward Iran just in case.”
– “We’re watching Iran,” he said. “I’d rather not see anything happen but we’re watching them very closely.”
– Trump said the United States attacked Iranian uranium enrichment sites last year to prevent Tehran from making a nuclear weapon. Iran denies its nuclear program is aimed at seeking the bomb.
– “Can’t let that happen,” Trump said, adding: “And Iran does want to talk, and we’ll talk.”
– The commander of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) had also warned Washington Thursday that the force had its “finger on the trigger.”
– A fortnight of protests starting in late December shook Iran’s clerical leadership under supreme leader Ali Khamenei, but the movement has petered out in the face of a crackdown that activists say killed thousands, accompanied by an unprecedented internet blackout.
– Last week, Trump pulled back from a threat to strike Iran over its deadly crackdown on the protests after the White House said Tehran had halted planned executions of demonstrators.
– Trump had on Tuesday warned Iran’s leaders the United States would “wipe them off the face of this Earth” if there was any attack on his life in response to a strike targeting Khamenei.
– Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian in a speech Thursday accused the United States and Israel of stoking the protests as a “cowardly revenge… for the defeat in the 12-Day War.”
– General Ali Abdollahi Aliabadi, head of Iran’s joint command headquarters, meanwhile warned that if America attacked, “all US interests, bases and centers of influence” would be “legitimate targets” for Iranian forces.
– Pezeshkian said Thursday that protest was “the natural right of citizens” but a distinction had to be drawn between protesters whose “hands are stained with the blood of innocent people.”
https://english.alarabiya.net/News/middle-east/2026/01/23/trump-says-us-armada-headed-toward-gulf