Seeking to repeat the kind of gunboat diplomacy Washington used to make substantial gains in Venezuela, President Donald Trump has now sent a large armada to the Middle East. He hopes the threat of military action will convince Tehran to end its nuclear weapons program, restrict its missile cache, and end aid to its so-called axis of resistance.
At first Trump claimed he was sending the armada to support protesters in Iran, but that was just a pretext.
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said Tehran is willing to negotiate, “provided that a suitable environment exists — one free from threats and unreasonable expectations.” Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi told CNN he was “confident that we can achieve a deal” and “ensure that there is no nuclear weapons.”
At the same time, Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei — the real ruling power in Iran, not the elected parliament — warned that any attack on Iran would spark a “regional war.”
Moscow has offered to take custody of Iran’s enriched uranium, as they did in the earlier nuclear deal negotiated by the Barack Obama administration, but which did not prevent Tehran from making progress toward producing a nuclear weapon.
As with his other moves in the Middle East — like imposing a ceasefire in Gaza without allowing Israel to complete its defeat of Hamas and inviting governments in the region to be on his “Board of Peace” over Gaza, as well as his abandonment of the Kurds in Syria to form a bloc with the new Ahmad al-Sharaa regime there — Trump is looking to forge a Pax Americana, one that will include Tehran’s rulers. His goal is to advance U.S. imperialism’s place as the dominant Middle East power, reaping superprofits from oil and other resources there and pushing back inroads made by archrival Beijing.
With the arrival of the USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier, transporting 5,000 troops, Washington now has at least 12 warships in the region. It also sent more than 36 additional aircraft, including fighter jets. Before their arrival, the U.S. military already had some 40,000 troops at eight permanent bases and 11 other sites in the region.
Tehran had agreed that Araghchi would meet with U.S. envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner in Turkey Feb. 6. The Turkish government — encouraged by Washington — had invited representatives of Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Egypt, Oman and the United Arab Emirates to be observers, as a way to press Tehran to make concessions and avoid a war.
But on Feb. 3 Tehran insisted the talks take place in Oman, with only U.S. and Iranian negotiators present, and limited to discussions on its nuclear weapons program.
Tensions in the region are high. Later that day a jet from the Abraham Lincoln shot down an Iranian drone the Pentagon claimed had “aggressively” approached the carrier.
Opponents of the Tehran regime inside Iran have spoken out against Washington’s war threats. The Free Union of Iranian Workers warned that contrary to aiding the fight against the regime, foreign military intervention would be an act “aimed at beheading the formation of a democratic and free Iran.”