President Donald Trump‘s Middle East special envoy Steve Witkoff and son-in-law Jared Kushner boarded the USS Abraham Lincoln on Saturday, just one day after high-stakes negotiations with Iran over its nuclear program.
Witkoff, Kushner, and U.S. Central Command Cmdr. Bradley Cooper met with Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi and his team in Oman on Friday for the nuclear talks, discussions that were inconclusive but were framed by principal figures as a positive step to reaching a deal. With more rounds expected, the three U.S. negotiators visited a U.S. aircraft carrier over the weekend that has been operating off Iran’s coast for weeks as tensions remain high between the two nations.
The visit including the three observing “live flight operations,” as well as a discussion with the pilot who shot down an Iranian drone that was flying “aggressively” toward the ship on Tuesday.
“Proud to stand with the men and women who defend our interests, deter our adversaries, and show the world what American readiness and resolve look like, on watch every day,” Witkoff posted on X, along with multiple photos of him aboard the aircraft carrier.
While the timing of the trip is odd, especially given Trump has still not ruled out a military response to Iran’s violent crackdown on protesters last month, the purpose of it was supposedly solely to express gratitude for the U.S. service members in the Middle East, according to CNN. A regional source also said both the Iranians and Omanis, who mediated the nuclear negotiations, knew of the visit ahead of time.
The USS Abraham Lincoln was originally deployed to the Indo-Pacific region late last year, but was redirected to the Middle East as tensions soared with Iran. It is part of a “massive” armada Trump has sent to the region in a show of force to the regime.
At least for now, Trump has signaled he wants to reach a deal with Iran rather than resort to military action, calling the Friday talks “very good” and even suggesting an “acceptable” deal is on the table.
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While it is unclear what that deal includes, the United States has expressed a desire for a more encompassing agreement that focuses on Iran’s nuclear program, ballistic missile production, and support for terrorist proxies in the region.
Iran, however, has drawn a red line on the latter two, restricting negotiations to just its nuclear program, while also insisting it is not pursuing nuclear weapons despite ample evidence from nuclear watchdogs that it is.