"Negotiate a fair and equitable deal -- NO NUCLEAR WEAPONS," U.S. President Donald Trump posted on Truth Social, otherwise the next U.S. attack on Iran "will be far worse." Tehran responded with a threat to strike back against the United States.
Amid a buildup of U.S. forces in the Middle East, the Republican president, who pulled out of world powers' 2015 nuclear deal with Tehran during his first White House term, noted that his last warning to Iran was followed by a military strike in June.
"Time is running out, it is truly of the essence,” Trump added.
"The next attack will be far worse! Don’t make that happen again," Trump wrote. He repeated that a U.S. "armada" was heading toward the Islamic Republic.
Any military action from the United States would result in Iran targeting the U.S., Israel and those who support it, Ali Shamkhani, an adviser to Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said in a post on X on Wednesday.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi warned on X that Iran’s armed forces are “prepared - with their fingers on the trigger to immediately and powerfully respond to ANY aggression against our beloved land, air, and sea.”
“The valuable lessons learned from the 12-day war have enabled us to respond even more strongly, rapidly, and profoundly,” Araghchi added.
At the same time, Araghchi said Iran has always welcomed a “mutually beneficial, fair and equitable” nuclear deal on equal footing and free from coercion, threats and intimidation that ensures Iran’s right to peaceful nuclear technology and guarantees that it will not pursue nuclear weapons.
“Such weapons have no place in our security calculations and we have NEVER sought to acquire them,” he said.
Araghchi said on Wednesday that Tehran has not requested negotiations with Washington, stressing that diplomacy cannot work under the pressure of military threats, according to state media IRNA.
The Iranian Foreign Minister also said he has not been in contact with U.S. special envoy Steve Witkoff in recent days and has not requested negotiations, state media reported.
Trump said a U.S. naval force headed by the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln was approaching Iran.
The warships started moving from the Asia-Pacific region last week as U.S.-Iranian tensions soared following a bloody crackdown on protests across Iran by its clerical authorities in recent weeks.
Trump has repeatedly threatened to intervene if Iran continued to kill protesters, but the countrywide demonstrations over economic privations and political repression have since abated.
He has said the United States would act if Tehran resumed its nuclear programme after the June airstrikes by Israeli and U.S. forces on key nuclear installations.
Earlier on Wednesday, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio told a congressional committee the Iranian government is probably weaker than it has ever been and its economy is in collapse. He predicted that street protests will spark up again.
But according to multiple U.S. intelligence reports, while the economic conditions that sparked the protests remain, the upper ranks of the Iranian government appear to be intact with no major fractures, two people familiar with the matter said.
A U.S. official told Reuters that Trump has not made up his mind on a military strike and that the Iranian government's weakened state makes it advantageous for the United States to press for a deal on denuclearisation and other issues.
The European Union was poised to include Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps on its list of terrorist organisations after France said on Wednesday it would support the move.
European Union foreign ministers will meet in Brussels on Thursday (29 January) and are due to sign off on new sanctions in response to Iran's crackdown on the protests.
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