Pressure was building on Iran on Friday as President Donald Trump weighed a military strike on the Islamic Republic and the Treasury Department sanctioned several officials it said were responsible for the regime’s brutal crackdown on its own people.
But the country's Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi told a news conference no talks between Tehran and Washington were currently planned and his country was ready for either negotiations or warfare.
Speaking after a meeting in Istanbul with his Turkish counterpart, Hakan Fidan, Araghchi said he was prepared for the resumption of talks with the U.S., but they should be “fair and equitable” and not include Iran’s defense capabilities.
“I hope we soon reach a framework that can guarantee honorable negotiations,” he said, before cautioning, “Iran is just as ready for negotiations as it is for war.”
His comments came after The New York Times reported Friday that Trump had been presented with a list of military options against Iran which included proposals for American forces to carry out raids on sites inside Iran, citing multiple U.S officials. NBC News could not verify these details.
And the Treasure Department's Office of Foreign Assets ramped up the pressure further when it announced sanctions on several Iranian officials including the country's Interior Minister Eskandar Momeni Kalagari.
It also imposed sanctions on Babak Morteza Zanjani, an Iranian investor who is accused of embezzling billions of dollars in Iranian oil revenue for the benefit of the country's government. Two digital asset exchanges linked to Zanjani that have processed large volumes of funds were also penalized.
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The Pentagon has also boosted its military presence in the region in recent days and an aircraft carrier group that has moved to it was ready to “rapidly fulfill its mission, with speed and violence, if necessary,” Trump said on Truth Social on Wednesday.
The following day, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said Iran should not pursue nuclear capabilities. “We will be prepared to deliver whatever this president expects of the War Department,” he said, using the rebranded name for the Defense Department adopted by the Trump administration.
After its brutal crackdown on nationwide protests left thousands dead in one of the biggest challenges to the Islamic Republic’s hard-line government in decades, Trump has called for regime change in Iran.
Comparisons have been made to the U.S. operation in Venezuela to remove President Nicolás Maduro, but Iran is far more capable of defending itself than the South American country, being in possession of an arsenal of ballistic missiles that it could use on American troops and bases in the region.
Even so, Iran doesn’t “have a lot of room for maneuver” and “there are not too many options available to them at this point,” said Sanam Vakil, director of the Middle East and North Africa program at Chatham House, a London-based think tank.
She said she thought Iran would “try to buy time” while “relying on regional states to try to negotiate a way out.” Meanwhile, it will try to “build resilience internally” in terms of its domestic supply chains, she added.
“They need to manage two simultaneous crises: the potential for an external war and another possible internal round of protests,” Vakil said.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio also acknowledged Wednesday that a regime change in Iran would be far more complex than in Venezuela, and could leave a power vacuum. “I don’t think anyone can give you a simple answer as to what happens next in Iran if the Supreme Leader and the regime were to fall,” he said.
Fearing the repercussions of regime collapse and U.S. intervention, Israel and Middle Eastern allies have urged the U.S. to hold off from attacking Iran, warning the regime may not yet be weakened to the point where military strikes would be the decisive blow that topples it.
Turkey opposes a military intervention against warning such an action would lead to regional instability. President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's office said in a statement Friday that he had offered to act as a “facilitator” between Iran and the U.S. in a phone call with Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian.
Earlier this week Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates have both ruled out the use of their airspace of territory to launch attacks on Iran.
Meanwhile, Israeli military intelligence chief Gen. Shlomi Binder was in Washington earlier this week for meetings with U.S. officials on Iran, according to a source familiar with his plans.
