3 minute read
U.S. President Donald Trump said on Thursday that the United States has an "armada" heading toward Iran but hoped he would not have to use it, Reuters reported.
Reuters cited U.S. officials speaking on condition of anonymity as saying that the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln and several guided-missile destroyers will arrive in the Middle East in the coming days.
One official told Reuters that additional air-defense systems were also being eyed for the Middle East.
"We have a lot of ships going that direction, just in case …I'd rather not see anything happen, but we're watching them very closely," Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One on his way back to the United States after speaking to world leaders in Davos, Switzerland.
At another point, he said: "We have an armada ... heading in that direction, and maybe we won't have to use it."
The warships started moving from the Asia-Pacific last week as tensions between Iran and the United States soared following the deadly crackdown on protests.
Trump had repeatedly threatened to intervene against Iran over the recent killings of protesters there but protests dwindled last week.
He repeated that claim on Thursday, saying Iran canceled nearly 840 hangings after his threats.
"I said: 'If you hang those people, you're going to be hit harder than you've ever been hit. It'll make what we did to your Iran nuclear (program) look like peanuts,'" Trump said.
"At an hour before this horrible thing was going to take place, they canceled it," he said, calling it "a good sign."
Trump has said the United States would act if Tehran resumed its nuclear program after the June strikes on key sites.
"If they try to do it again, they have to go to another area. We'll hit them there too, just as easily," he said on Thursday.
Washington has accused Iranian authorities of violently suppressing peaceful anti-government protests which began in late December, while Tehran said that ‘foreign-backed terrorists’ had incited the clashes which left thousands dead.