Iran is once again threatening to attack U.S. military bases across the Middle East if President Donald Trump orders a second round of strikes on the Islamic Republic in less than a year.
“In my view, this is very clear. If the U.S. attacks us, it is evident that we don’t have the ability and access to attack U.S. territory and therefore have to attack or retaliate to U.S. bases in the region,” Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi told Al Jazeera on Saturday. “And unfortunately, U.S. bases are spread all over the region.”
Iranian leaders, including Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, have made repeated threats if Trump intervened militarily in Iranian affairs as the clerical regime cracked down on anti-government protesters.
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The latest threat was made one day after the United States and Iran concluded their first two rounds of indirect nuclear talks in Oman. Additional talks are expected to take place in the coming days.
The renewed negotiations center on Iran’s nuclear weapons program, which the U.S. targeted in a bombing campaign last June. Tensions between the two nations have grown ever since then.
Araghchi said there is a “very, very deep distrust” amid the nuclear talks because the U.S. bombed Iranian nuclear facilities during negotiations last summer.
“In my view, this is not easy. This distrust, of course, was created by the United States,” he added. “In the previous round of negotiations, it was not us who carried out a military attack in the middle of negotiations. In fact, the first bomb that was fired at us was fired at the negotiating table.”
The U.S. attack followed the Israeli military’s strikes on Iranian targets, which were meant to prevent the Islamic regime from further developing nuclear weapons. Iran had been enriching uranium up to 60% purity, short of the 90% threshold that is required for nuclear weapons, before the conflict.
While its nuclear capabilities had been set back, Iran stated during the latest negotiations that it does not intend to stop enriching uranium as the U.S. military surrounds the nation.
The USS Abraham Lincoln is one of many U.S. Navy ships that recently arrived in the Arabian Sea in a show of force against Iran. Trump’s Middle East special envoy Steve Witkoff and son-in-law Jared Kushner both boarded the aircraft carrier on Saturday after holding nuclear talks with Iranian officials.
Trump hopes to make a nuclear deal with Iran soon. Otherwise, he may authorize military action.
“We have very good talks going with Iran,” the president said on Friday aboard Air Force One before traveling to his Mar-a-Lago resort for the weekend. “The results today with Iran … we’re gonna meet again early next week. And they want to make a deal, as they should want to make a deal.”
As his administration holds talks with Iran, Trump is set to meet with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the White House on Wednesday to discuss the future of Iran’s nuclear program.
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“The Prime Minister believes any negotiations must include limitations on ballistic missiles and a halting of the support for the Iranian axis,” Netanyahu’s office said in a statement.
The meeting was moved up a week earlier than expected. Netanyahu was initially scheduled to meet Trump at the White House on Feb. 18, one day before the inaugural meeting of the Board of Peace is set to be held. The board was established to oversee redevelopment in post-war Gaza.