US President Donald Trump on Tuesday expressed hope that Iran would make a deal with the US and once again noted that the US has increased its military presence in the Middle East.
Speaking during a rally in Iowa, Trump said, “There is another beautiful armada floating beautifully towards Iran right now. So we will see."
“I hope they make a deal. I hope they make a deal," he added.
Trump has repeatedly warned Iran that the US would hit it hard if its authorities execute anti-regime protesters.
Last Thursday, Trump again issued a stark warning to Iran, during an in‑flight briefing with reporters on his return from Davos to Washington, describing a significant US military buildup in the region.
“We have a lot of ships going in that direction, just in case. We have a big flotilla going in that direction. And we'll see what happens," Trump said. “We have a big force going toward Iran. I'd rather not see anything happen, but we're watching them very closely."
Trump again said that he prevented hundreds of executions in Iran the previous week. “I stopped 837 hangings [last] Thursday. They would have been dead. Every one of them would have been hung…I said ‘if you hang those people, you're going to be hit harder than you've ever been hit. It'll make what we did to your Iran nuclear look like peanuts.’ And an hour before this horrible thing was going to take place, they canceled it. And they actually said they canceled it. They didn't postpone it. They canceled it. So that was a good sign."
Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei warned on Monday that the Islamic Republic will deliver a “comprehensive and regret‑inducing" response to any act of aggression.
On Tuesday, it was reported that the US is weighing targeted strikes on Iranian officials and commanders, as the death toll in the Iranian protests reaches a reported high of over 36,000.