Trump threatens Iran with an attack like the one on Venezuela

BarcelonaDonald Trump is increasing pressure on Iran again. The US president has threatened Tehran with an attack similar to the one launched against Venezuela if it does not "quickly come to the table" to negotiate a "fair and equitable" nuclear agreement. "Time is running out," the president threatened in a message on his social media platform, Truth Social. "Make a deal." "The next attack will be much worse!" he said, alluding to Operation Midnight Hammer. launched against Iran's nuclear facilities this summer

In addition, Trump explained that "a massive armada is heading toward Iran. It is moving quickly, with great power, enthusiasm, and purpose. As with Venezuela, it is ready, willing, and able to accomplish its mission quickly, swiftly and violently, if necessary." The fleet he has sent, he maintains, is larger than the one he sent to Venezuela.

Trump's message comes days after the White House sent an armada of naval forces to the Middle East. Under the pretext of the Islamic Republic's crackdown on Iranian protesters—the protests that erupted on January 8 and 9 have been violently suppressed by the ayatollahs' regime—Trump has repeatedly threatened to intervene against Iran. When the pace of the crackdown slowed last week, the president said he had halted executions of prisoners.

According to information from the newspaper New York TimesTrump had been considering an attack on Iran for days, but reportedly delayed it at the request of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who asked him to postpone it. Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Oman, and Egypt, all Washington allies, have also asked the Trump administration not to attack Iran for fear of a wider regional conflict.

While protests have been the pretext for attacking Tehran until now, this is the first time Trump has directly linked military threats to the nuclear issue. The Republican, who withdrew the United States from a multinational nuclear agreement with Tehran in 2015 during his first term in the White House, wants an agreement that would restrain Iran based on what he calls "strategic submission." That is, an agreement that would force Iran to completely stop enriching uranium, end its ballistic missile development program, and cease funding regional militias.

For its part, the Iranian government has asserted that it sees a military confrontation as more likely than negotiations with the United States. Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said he had not been in contact with US Special Envoy Steve Witkoff in recent days nor had he requested negotiations, according to Iranian state media.