Ahead of high-level negotiations aimed at ending the war in Iran, US President Donald Trump on Friday said that US warships are being reloaded with weaponry to strike Iran if talks in Pakistan fail to produce a deal.
In an interview with the New York Post, Trump said, "We have a reset going. We're loading up the ships with the best ammunition, the best weapons ever made -- even better than what we did previously, and we blew them apart," the Post quoted Trump as saying.
"And if we don’t have a deal, we will be using them, and we will be using them very effectively."
In a brief and cryptic message on his Truth Social network earlier, Trump had spoken of the "WORLD’S MOST POWERFUL RESET!!!"
In another Truth Social post, Trump said, "The Iranians don’t seem to realise they have no cards, other than a short term extortion of the World by using International Waterways. The only reason they are alive today is to negotiate!"
His "no cards" comments about Iran echoed his notorious broadside at Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in the Oval Office in February when he raged that "you don't have the cards" against Russia.
In a separate social media message, the 79-year-old US leader added: "The Iranians are better at handling the Fake News Media, and 'Public Relations,' than they are at fighting!"
Meanwhile, Vice President JD Vance headed to Islamabad on Friday to lead the US delegation in this weekend's talks with Iran, with a warning to Tehran not to "play" Washington.
President Donald Trump has tasked the member of his inner circle who has seemed to be the most reluctant defender of the six-week-old conflict with Iran to now find a resolution and stave off the US president's astonishing threat to wipe out its “whole civilisation.”
Iran’s semiofficial Tasnim news agency, close to the Revolutionary Guard, claimed that talks set for Saturday wouldn’t happen unless Israel stopped its attacks in Lebanon.
Donald Trump complained that Iran was “doing a very poor job” by not allowing the free flow of ships through the strait, through which 20% of the world’s traded oil once passed.
Control of the narrow Strait of Hormuz will be at the heart of peace talks between the United States and Iran in Pakistan on Saturday.
Iran and the United States said the crucial channel would reopen after a two-week truce was announced on Tuesday, but Tehran's threats mean very few ships are passing through.
(With inputs from AP, AFP)