Iran Threatens U.S. Armadas as U.S. Envoys, Iranian Foreign Minister in Peace Negotiations
While U.S. envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner were in Geneva on Tuesday negotiating with Iran’s foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, about peace and Iran’s nuclear program, Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, was busy issuing threats against the U.S. armadas.
“They constantly say, ‘We have sent an aircraft carrier towards Iran.’ Okay, of course, an aircraft carrier is a dangerous device, but more dangerous than the carrier is the weapon that can send it to the bottom of the sea,” he said, according to The Independent.
Iran Temporarily Closed Strait of Hormuz
Iran also made a point of running naval exercises in the Strait of Hormuz on Monday, which included helicopters, warships, and firing live test missiles as a show of strength. The strait was closed for several hours during the exercises, according to SCMP. About a fifth of the world’s oil is transported through the Strait of Hormuz.
After Tuesday’s talks, Araghchi said that he felt the talks went well and that it’s still possible to reach a peace agreement. However, he also indicated that Iran will defend itself if needed.
Trump Prefers Peace, but Keeping All Options Open
Vice President JD Vance told CBN that, “Well, look, the president has told his entire senior team that we should be trying to cut a deal that ensures the Iranians don't have a nuclear weapon. But if we can't cut that deal, then there's another option on the table. So I think the president is going to continue to preserve his options.”
Trump ordered the USS Gerald R Ford and its supporting warships to sail from the Caribbean Sea to the Middle East last week. This particular aircraft carrier is the world’s largest, and it will join the USS Abraham Lincoln. Trump hopes to pressure Iran into making a deal. It will take approximately three weeks for this second armada to make its way to the region, offering a highly significant increase in military firepower for the United States, according to The Guardian.
Trump and PM Netanyahu Meet Regarding Iran
President Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met in a closed-door meeting last week regarding the next steps regarding Iran. Trump is insistent that any deal needs to include Iran abandoning its nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles ambitions. In addition, Trump and Netanyahu have agreed that they will remain in communication about a deal with Iran.
“I will present to the president our outlook regarding the principles of these negotiations — the essential principles which, in my opinion, are important not only to Israel, but to everyone around the world who wants peace and security in the Middle East,” Netanyahu’s office said in a statement last week before leaving Israel for the United States.
Iran ‘Ashamed Before People’ but Makes its Demands for a Deal
Ironically, Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian publicly stated in a speech last week during the 47th anniversary of the Islamic Revolution that, “We are ashamed before the people. We are obliged to serve all those who were harmed in this process. We are ready to hear the voice of the people. We are servants of the people, and we do not seek to confront the people,” according to The Jerusalem Post.
However, many people believe this was nothing more than an attempt to gain some favor with President Trump during the upcoming negotiations.
Deputy Foreign Minister Majid Takht-Ravanchi on Sunday told the BBC in an exclusive interview picked up by The Times of Israel that, “The ball is in America’s court” regarding making a deal, and that America needs, “to prove that they want to do a deal.”
Takht-Ravanchi said he’s willing to discuss diluting Iran’s most highly enriched uranium, but that the “issue of zero enrichment is not an issue anymore and as far as Iran is concerned, it is not on the table anymore.”
He’s also not willing to give up Iran’s ballistic missile arsenal, and is insisting that, “sanctions have to also be on the table.”
Takht-Ravanchi blames Trump’s sanctions on Iran for the collapse of Iran’s economy, which led to the uprisings still taking place in Iran.
Iranian Christians Want President Trump to Intervene
CBN White House Correspondent Kelly Wright has been in contact with a community of Iranian Christians in Washington, D.C., and said in a CBN video that he is hearing stories “from families that have been devastated by the Iranian brutal crackdown.”
In addition, he stated that while the Iranian Christians in D.C. publicly support Trump, privately they say they’d like for him to do something because, “there are people on the ground who are literally being killed, and they can’t walk the streets at night because snipers are on the rooftops to actually aim fire at innocent people. So they’re being shut in, and even people in prison are being violated and brutalized. So they’re actually pleading with the president of the United States, draw that red line and say, ‘no more, enough is enough, stop watching the innocent, the slaughter of innocent people in Iran’”
He went on to note that the Christian Iranians in D.C. are praying that the president would intervene and American troops would help Iran to become a democracy.
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Photo Credit: ©Getty Images / Anadolu / Contributor
Originally published February 18, 2026.
