Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has placed the country’s armed forces on ‘high alert’, news agency Reuters reported citing an official. This comes a month after President Donald Trump urged Tehran to hold negotiations on its nuclear program, further threatening to bomb Iran if diplomacy fails.
Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has placed armed forces on alert(AFP)
Trump has already moved an aircraft carrier to the Middle East after amassing several stealth bombers to the nearby Chagos Islands. The USS Carl Vinson was transferred from Asia to the Persian Gulf, directly south of Iran, to join USS Harry S. Truman.
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Iran places armed forces on high alert
Amid fears of a full-blown war with the United States, an Iranian official told Reuters that its neighbors that host American bases could be in the ‘firing line’. Tehran has rejected Trump’s demand for direct talks, saying it wants to continue indirect negotiations through Oman.
“Indirect talks offer a chance to evaluate Washington’s seriousness about a political solution with Iran,” the official said. Tehran has already issued notices to Iraq, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Turkey, and Bahrain, urging them to not help the US in its potential Iran plans.
Such an act ‘will have severe consequences for them’, the official told Reuters. They further added that Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei had placed Iran’s armed forces on high alert.
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Trump prefers direct talks
Last month, Donald Trump said he would prefer to hold ‘direct talks’ with Iran and not through a mediator – which is generally Oman.
“I think it goes faster and you understand the other side a lot better than if you go through intermediaries,” he argued.
Iran’s foreign minister Araghchi said ‘direct negotiations would be meaningless with a party that constantly threatens to resort to force in violation of the UN Charter and that expresses contradictory positions from its various officials’.
“We remain committed to diplomacy and are ready to try the path of indirect negotiations,” he added, according to a foreign ministry statement.