US ‘armada’ heads towards Iran

President Donald Trump said on Thursday that the United States has an “armada” heading toward Iran but hoped he would not have to use it, as he renewed warnings to Tehran against killing protesters or restarting its nuclear program.

US officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, say the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln and several guided-missile destroyers will arrive in the Middle East in the coming days.

One official said additional air-defence systems were also being eyed for the Middle East, which could be critical to guard against any Iranian strike on US bases in the region.

The deployments expand the options available to Trump, both to better defend US forces throughout the region at a moment of tensions and to take any additional military action after striking Iranian nuclear sites in June, reports Reuters.

“We have a lot of ships going that direction, just in case …I’d rather not see anything happen, but we’re watching them very closely,” Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One on his way back to the United States after speaking to world leaders in Davos, Switzerland. At another point, he said: “We have an armada ... heading in that direction, and maybe we won’t have to use it.”

The US-based Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA) said yesterday it had confirmed that 5,002 people had been killed, including 4,714 protesters, 42 minors, 207 members of the security forces and 39 bystanders.

The nationwide shutdown of the internet by authorities in Iran, which activists fear is aimed at masking the true scale of a crackdown on protests, has lasted more than two weeks, a monitor said later on Thursday.

“Iran has now been under a national internet blackout for two full weeks,” said Netblocks in a post on X.

“At hour 336, connectivity levels continue to flatline with only a slight rise at the backbone supplying regime-whitelisted networks,” it said. “A few users are now able to tunnel to the outside world,” it added, without specifying the tools used for this.

The UN Human Rights Council held an emergency session yesterday to discuss the “alarming violence” used in Iran against protesters, while a group of states called on United Nations’ investigators to document alleged abuses for future trials. UN rights chief Volker Turk urged Iran authorities to “end brutal repression”.

Meanwhile, an influential Iranian cleric warned that Iran may target US-linked investments in the region in retaliation for any US attack on the Islamic Republic, Iranian news agencies reported.

The UN nuclear watchdog must clarify its stance on US and Israeli attacks on Iran’s nuclear sites last June before inspectors are allowed to visit those facilities, Iranian media yesterday quoted the country’s atomic chief as saying.

Mohammad Eslami said the inspections so far had been limited to undamaged sites and he criticised the watchdog for letting Israeli and US pressure influence its actions.