The Iranian government is bracing itself for a fresh US and Israeli missile assault after the USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier strike group arrives in the Middle East.
Fearing that airstrikes are imminent, Iran 86 year old supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has reportedly gone underground.
He has allegedly retreated to a fortified shelter connected to a series of elaborate underground tunnels after senior military officials warned of the increasing likelihood of a US attack.
However Iran’s consul general to India Saeid Reza Mosayeb Motlagh, has denied reports that Khamenei is is hiding, saying that the supreme leader is not afraid and that his country is fully prepared to tackle any aggression.
Meanwhile as the US aircraft carrier and its accompanying warships arrive in the region, Donald Trump has said that Iran wants a deal as U.S. “armada”.
The Telegraph reports: the US president had been threatening to launch strikes on Tehran if the government did not stop the violent crackdown on protesters.
Mr Trump softened his rhetoric after being persuaded by Iran that some planned executions of detained protesters had been halted and after receiving intel that an attack might not help the demonstrators in their goal of regime change.
In an interview with Axios, Mr Trump said he believed the authorities were ready to make a deal in part because he sent a “big armada” to the region.
The US has deployed the USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier and three warships.
“They want to make a deal. I know so. They called on numerous occasions. They want to talk,” he said. “We have a big armada next to Iran. Bigger than Venezuela.”
The strike group is “currently deployed to the Middle East to promote regional security and stability,” US Central Command, which is responsible for American forces in the region, said in a post on X.
A senior US official meanwhile said to reporters during a call that Washington is “open for business” if the Iranians “want to contact us.”
The protests in Iran started in late December, driven by anger at rampant inflation, but quickly turned into a mass movement against the Islamic republic.
Rights groups have accused authorities of shooting directly at protesters under the cover of an internet shutdown.