“Earlier, Donald Trump said that a “huge armada” is heading to the shores of Iran, which is ready, as in “the case with Venezuela”, to quickly fulfill its mission”, — write: www.radiosvoboda.org
“The last time the US mistakenly got involved in wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, they wasted more than $7 trillion and lost more than 7,000 American lives. Iran is ready for dialogue on the basis of mutual respect and interests, but if pressure is put on it, it will defend itself and respond like never before,” said the message published on the Kh social network.
Earlier, Donald Trump said that a “huge armada” is heading to the shores of Iran, which is ready, as in “the case with Venezuela”, to quickly fulfill its mission, “with speed and violence if necessary”, and expressed hope that Iran will quickly “sit down at the negotiating table” to conclude an agreement “without nuclear weapons”.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Arakchi said on Wednesday that negotiations between Washington and Tehran cannot take place if the United States threatens Iran. He also said that he had not been in contact with US special envoy Steve Witkoff in recent days and was not seeking negotiations.
A US aircraft carrier group arrived in the Middle East on January 27 amid rising tensions over a possible strike on Iran following a brutal crackdown on protests.
The President of the United States, Donald Trump, meanwhile, expressed hope that military action against Tehran would not be necessary, but did not rule out the option of airstrikes in response to repression against Iranian protesters. In an interview with Axios on January 26, Trump said that the situation with Iran is “volatile” because he has sent a “large armada” to the region.
Read also: The UN announced an unprecedented number of people killed in protests in Iran, the US sent an “armada”
Since the end of December 2025, mass anti-government protests have been taking place in Iran. Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said several thousand people had died during the protests, blaming the demonstrators and the US government. Washington denies this accusation.
US-based human rights group HRANA says the confirmed death toll from protests in Iran now stands at 5,459, with the number of deaths still under investigation reaching 17,031.
At the same time, according to a report published by Time magazine, the number of dead during the protests in Iran may exceed 30,000 people, two high-ranking Iranian health officials told the publication.