AGENCIES

A US naval strike force led by an aircraft carrier was in Middle Eastern waters yesterday as Iran vowed to hit back against any strike and President Donald Trump said he believed the Islamic republic still wanted talks.

Washington has not ruled out new military intervention against Tehran over its crackdown on protests, which according to rights groups saw thousands of people killed within days.

A strike group led by the USS Abraham Lincoln has now arrived in Middle Eastern waters, US Central Command said, without revealing its precise location, reports AFP.

Since Iran earlier this month launched the crackdown on protests accompanied by a blanket internet blackout, Trump has given mixed signals on intervention which some opponents of the clerical leadership see as the only way to bring about change.

“We have a big armada next to Iran. Bigger than Venezuela,” Trump told the Axios news site, weeks after US military action resulted in the capture of the Latin American nation’s president Nicolas Maduro.

But he added: “They want to make a deal. I know so. They called on numerous occasions. They want to talk.”

Axios said Trump declined to discuss the options presented to him by his national security team, or which one he prefers. Analysts say options include strikes on military facilities or targeted hits against the leadership under Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in a full-scale bid to bring down the system that has ruled Iran since the 1979 Islamic revolution that ousted the Shah.

The United States is “open for business” if Iran wishes to contact Washington, a US official said on Monday. “I think they know the terms,” the official told reporters when asked about the terms of talks with Iran. “They’re aware of the terms.”

Iran’s foreign ministry warned on Monday of a “comprehensive and regret-inducing response to any aggression”. Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei said: “The arrival of such a battleship is not going to affect Iran’s determination and seriousness to defend the Iranian nation.”

Hezbollah chief Naim Qassem said on Monday that any attack on the group’s backer Tehran would also be an attack on the group, and warned that any new war on Iran would ignite the region.

Meanwhile, a US-based rights group said yesterday it had confirmed the deaths of over 6,000 people in protests in Iran suppressed by security forces. NGOs tracking the toll have said their task has been impeded by an almost three-week internet shutdown. The US-based Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA) said it had confirmed that 6,126 people had been killed, including 5,777 protesters, 86 minors, 214 members of the security forces and 49 bystanders.