As the US and Iran hold their second round of talks about Iran’s nuclear programme in Geneva, Iran shut down a key maritime strait and issued a direct threat to the United States.
Negotiations with the US today are focused on Iran’s nuclear programme, and won’t focus on the country’s bloody crackdown on protesters, for which Donald Trump threatened to use force on the country.
Talking to reporters on Monday night aboard Air Force One on his way to Washington, Trump said he planned to be involved in the talks, at least indirectly.
‘I think they want to make a deal. I don’t think they want the consequences of not making a deal,’ he said.
Today, the Strait of Hormuz has been shut for several hours for ‘safety and maritime concerns’ as Ali Khamenei’s forces hold live fire military exercises.
This is the first time that Iran has closed parts of the Strait, an essential international waterway, since the US began threatening Iran with military action. There are reports that Russian and Chinese ships joined Iranian ships for the exercises.
Iranian foreign minister Abbas Araghchi, who is leading the talks for Iran, said: ‘I am in Geneva with real ideas to achieve a fair and equitable deal. What is not on the table: submission before threats.’
Just hours later, Khamenei’s official social media account posted: ‘The US President keeps saying that they have the strongest military force in the world.
‘The strongest military force in the world may at times be struck so hard that it cannot get up again.’
Khamenei has stepped up his warnings to the US over its build-up of military forces in the Middle East.
‘Of course, a warship is a dangerous apparatus, but more dangerous than the warship is the weapon that can sink the warship into the depths of the sea,’ he threatened.
The Ayatollah appears to be referencing Trump sending the USS Gerald R Ford, the world’s largest aircraft carrier, from the Caribbean Sea to the Middle East to join other warships and military assets the US has built up in the region.
The Ford will join the USS Abraham Lincoln and its accompanying guided-missile destroyers, which have been in the region for more than two weeks.
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