Donald Trump is calculating his next move as he aims to corner Iran over nuclear talks between Washington and Tehran. The US President has decided to put an end to Iran's rapidly advancing nuclear programme.
After an outright denial for talks with the United States, Iran reluctantly agreed, saying it reserves the right to reject the final proposal.
Donald Trump is determined to have his way, by hook or by crook. And so, in order to build pressure on Iran, the US President has kept military plans as a backup, should talks fail.
'ENCIRCLING THE OPPONENT'
Even before the next round of US-Iran talks, which began three days ago, Washington has moved in a second aircraft carrier in the region. The USS Carl Vinson and its strike group has moved up the Arabian Sea, towards the Persian Gulf. Operations reportedly began late on Monday night as suspected US airstrikes pounded parts of Yemen controlled by Iran-backed Houthi militants.
Though similar operations have been on by another US aircraft carrier - USS Harry S. Truman, a second strike group is seen as a move by Trump to intensify the strikes in order to make his intentions clear to Ayatollah Ali Hosseini Khamenei, the Supreme Leader of Iran.
Donald Trump has threatened to carry out precession airstrikes on all of Iran's nuclear facilities if a deal acceptable to Washington is not achieved. On the other hand, Iran has warned that it could easily pursue a nuclear weapon with their current stockpile of uranium that has successfully been enriched to near weapons-grade levels.
'THE OPENING'
The first round of talks were held in Oman. US's Mideast envoy Steve Witkoff, who represented America, said that the talks were "positive, constructive, and compelling". Surprisingly, even Iran's Supreme Leader reportedly described the talks as "going well". However, Iran swiftly sent a top delegation headed by the foreign minister to Moscow to consult the Kremlin.
Mr Witkoff, in an interview to Fox News, said, "This is going to be much about verification on the enrichment program, and then ultimately verification on weaponization. That includes missiles, the type of missiles that they have stockpiled there. And it includes the trigger for a bomb."
After the first meeting, Donald Trump asserted that "Iran has to get rid of the concept of a nuclear weapon. These are radicalised people, and they cannot have a nuclear weapon." Asked if American options for a response include a military strike on Tehran's nuclear facilities, Trump said: "Of course it does."
The stakes are high between the rival nations and where the next round of talks will be held is not known yet.
THE TWO 'ROOKS' - VINSON AND TRUMAN - MOVE IN
Satellite photos taken by the European Space Agency's Copernicus programme, which is Europe's version of the GPS, showed the USS Carl Vinson heading up the Arabian Sea and operating northeast of Socotra, an island off Yemen located just at the mouth of the Gulf of Aden.
The USS Carl Vinson carrier strike group includes the Ticonderoga-class guided missile cruiser USS Princeton and two Arleigh Burke-class guided missile destroyers, the USS Sterett and the USS William P. Lawrence.
President Trump has ordered the Vinson to double up with USS Harry S. Truman, which has been carrying out strikes on Iran-backed assets in Yemen for a month now. As the two team up, the US Navy released footage showing USS Carl Vinson preparing ordinance and F-35 and F/A-18 fighter jets take-off and land in the dark.
Besides this, the US Navy's Fifth Fleet has also been kept ready to engage. The Fifth Fleet is based out of the US's naval base in Manama, Bahrain and is responsible to oversee operation in the Red Sea, Gulf of Aden and the Persian Gulf.
Sharing videos on social media platform X, the US Central Command said that air raids against the Houthis have now been upgraded to "24x7 strikes".
Besides the navy, the US Air Force is also active in the Indian Ocean region, with Washington deploying its largest-ever fleet of B-2 stealth bombers at its joint military base Diego Garcia. The B-2 bombers are the world's most advanced stealth military aircraft, capable of striking Iran's deep underground nuclear facilities.
The United States has a total of 20 B-2 stealth bombers, of which six have now been deployed in the Indian Ocean Region - that's roughly 30 per cent of its fleet, accounting for a massive strategic move.
THE SUPREME LEADER'S MESSAGE
Amid threats and a very aggressive military posturing by Donald Trump, Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei addressed top officials in the Iranian government shortly after the first round of talks with the Unites States.
"We shouldn't be overly optimistic about this dialogue, nor overly pessimistic," the 85-year-old Supreme Leader said, adding that "The first steps have been taken well and executed properly."
However, he cautioned that "From here on, the process should be followed very carefully. The red lines are clear - both for the other side and for us. We may or may not reach a result, but either way, it's worth pursuing," he said, according to the Associated Press.
The Supreme Leader went on to tell his government officials, "Of course, we don't fully trust them (Americans) - we know who we're dealing with, but we are optimistic about our own capabilities."
(Inputs from Associated Press)
