Arya News - Iran’s supreme leader threatened to send US aircraft carriers to the “bottom of the sea” while talks to avert a war began in Geneva.
Iran’s supreme leader threatened to send US aircraft carriers to the “bottom of the sea” while talks to avert a war began in Geneva.
Ali Khamenei dismissed the American military build-up in the Persian Gulf after Donald Trump ordered a second carrier to the region last week.
“They constantly say we have sent an aircraft carrier towards Iran,” the Islamic Republic’s supreme leader said. “Very well, an aircraft carrier is certainly a dangerous machine, but more dangerous than the carrier is the weapon that can send it to the bottom of the sea.”
The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), Khamenei’s loyal elite force, said this morning it planned to close the Strait of Hormuz for several hours, the first time the pinch-point entrance to the Gulf would have been blocked since the 1980s tanker wars.
Iran’s foreign minister is in Geneva for the second round of indirect nuclear negotiations with US envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, mediated by Oman.
Mr Trump has also said he will be “indirectly” involved in a fresh round of nuclear talks with Iran set to begin in Geneva on Tuesday.
Speaking as a second US aircraft carrier steamed towards the Gulf, the US president confirmed he would be closely involved in the discussions, adding: “I don’t think they want the consequences of not making a deal.”
On board Air Force One, Donald Trump said he believed Iran wanted to strike a deal on its nuclear programme - Mandel NGAN/AFP via Getty Images
Khamenei’s threats to sink US warships are likely aimed primarily at a domestic audience rather than Washington, but nonetheless risk angering Mr Trump.
“It seems that the president of the United States keeps saying that their army is the strongest army in the world,” Khamenei said. “The strongest army in the world may sometimes receive such a slap that it cannot get back up.”
With Iran’s political establishment deeply divided over the Geneva talks, thousands dead following January’s protest crackdown, and reformist leaders under arrest, Khamenei is under pressure to project strength.
His public threats may also provide political cover for whatever compromises his negotiating team may make in Geneva, including limits to his nuclear programme.
Jared Kushner, the president’s son-in-law, and Steve Witkoff, his special envoy, will meet Iranian officials in the Swiss capital later on Tuesday for a second round of discussions mediated by Oman.
The talks are expected to focus on Tehran’s nuclear programme and the potential of the US lifting economic sanctions on the Islamic Republic.
On Monday, the Iranian foreign ministry said it believed the US position on the nuclear programme had moved towards a “more realistic one”.
Steve Witkoff (left), Jared Kushner (centre) and US Navy Admiral Brad Cooper observe flight operations aboard Nimitz-class aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln in the Arabian Sea - US NAVY/AFP via Getty Images
The White House is under pressure from Israel to also push for limits on Iranian ballistic missile stocks, as well as its sponsorship of terrorist groups, alongside the nuclear issue.
The US negotiators are also using their visit to Geneva to meet a Russian delegation to discuss Ukraine .
On Tuesday, Mr Witkoff was seen having breakfast with Jonathan Powell, Sir Keir Starmer’s national security adviser, at the InterContinental hotel in Geneva before the expected meeting with the Russians.
They were briefly joined by Dan Driscoll, the US Army secretary, who stood over them in workout clothes.
An initial round of discussions between Iran and the US took place in Oman 10 days ago, after which both sides expressed cautious optimism that further talks would be worthwhile.
Despite the positive signals, Mr Trump has continued to threaten Iran with military action .
On board Air Force One, Mr Trump told reporters he believed Iran wanted to strike a deal on its nuclear programme.
The USS Gerald R Ford, the largest warship in the world, is on its way to the Middle East - Alyssa Joy/US Navy via Getty Images
Referring to the American strikes on the nuclear facilities last summer, which followed several rounds of talks which yielded no agreement, he said: “We could have had a deal instead of sending the B-2s in to knock out their nuclear potential. And we had to send the B-2s,” referring to US stealth bombers.
“I hope they’re going to be more reasonable,” he added.
Abbas Araghchi, Iran’s foreign minister, met the United Nations (UN) nuclear watchdog chief on Monday, saying in a post on X he was in Geneva to “achieve a fair and equitable deal”.
But he said: “What is not on the table: submission before threats.”
Abbas Araghchi (right) met with the IAEA’s Rafael Mariano Grossi in Geneva on Monday - Shutterstock
The USS Gerald R. Ford, the largest warship in the world, is currently on its way to the Middle East to join the USS Abraham Lincoln carrier strike group.
Once amassed, the combined force would allow the US to prosecute a sustained campaign of air strikes on Iran.
On Tuesday, referring to the talks in Geneva, Khamenei said that possessing deterrent weapons is “necessary and obligatory” for every nation.
He called US demands that Iran abandon its nuclear programme “illogical”, adding: “If negotiations are to take place, pre-determining their outcome is wrong and foolish. This foolish act is being done by the US government, president and some senators, and they don’t realise this path is a dead end for them.”
Israel, along with some policymakers in Washington, wants Mr Trump to attempt to topple the regime.
However, analysts are sceptical whether this can be achieved from the air alone, and Mr Trump is not inclined to deploy US troops to Iran.
On Monday, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps launched a maritime drill in the Strait of Hormuz , the vital sea lane for oil shipments and relatively close to the US fleet.
On Tuesday, the IRGC said it would temporarily close parts of the Strait of Hormuz for several hours as it conducted live-fire naval exercises in the waterway.
Credit: @TM_911/ Fars News
State television broadcast footage from the drill site showing cruise missiles being fired toward intended targets during the exercises.
Iran has never fully closed the Strait of Hormuz, though it has repeatedly threatened to do so and has taken actions short of complete closure that have disrupted shipping.
During the so-called “tanker war” of the 1980s, Iran and Iraq both attacked oil shipping in the Persian Gulf, with Iran mining international waters and attacking vessels with speedboats and missiles.
Marco Rubio, the US secretary of state, said reaching a deal with Tehran would be “very difficult”.
“I think that there’s an opportunity here to diplomatically reach an agreement ... but I don’t want to overstate it either,” Mr Rubio said during a visit to Hungary on Monday. “It’s going to be hard.”
Meanwhile, Iran’s foreign ministry said Washington’s position on Tehran’s nuclear programme has shifted towards “realism” since the Muscat talks.
Esmail Baghaei, a spokesman, said: “A cautious assessment of the outcome of the talks that took place in Muscat until today is that, at least based on what has been told to us, America’s position regarding Iran’s nuclear issue has moved towards becoming more realistic, in the sense that they would be committed to Iran’s explicit rights under the NPT treaty.”
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