This article was originally published by Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty and is reprinted with permission.
US President Donald Trump said Iran is “talking seriously” with the United States following his threats of renewed military action and amid the buildup of a US “armada” in the tense Middle East region.
Tehran is “talking to us, and we’ll see if we can do something. Otherwise, we’ll see what happens…. We have a big fleet heading out there,” Trump told Fox News on January 31. “They are negotiating.”
Later, he told reporters on Air Force One that “they are talking to us — seriously talking.” It was not immediately clear under what circumstances such talks might be taking place.
Trump also said the US administration had not informed nervous allies in the region about possible military strikes, citing security concerns.
“Well, we can’t tell them the plan. If I told them the plan, it would be almost as bad as telling you [the media] the plan. It could be worse, actually,” he said.
Trump has publicly taken a hard line against Iran’s autocratic rulers amid a crackdown on anti-government protesters on the streets of Tehran and other cities throughout the country.
On January 29, he said Iran must halt its nuclear program and stop “killing protesters,” claiming those demands had been conveyed to Iranian officials.
US Military Force Heading To Region
Two days earlier, he announced that a “massive armada” was moving toward Iran, warning it could act with “speed and fury” if necessary, while expressing hope for a “fair deal” that would leave Iran without nuclear weapons.
The US military has deployed a naval strike group, led by the USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier, off the coast of Iran.
Because of cuts to Internet service in Iran, it is difficult to assess the number of protesters who have been killed during the mass demonstrations, which appear to have eased in recent days.
The US-based rights organization HRANA, whose figures RFE/RL has been regularly citing since the violent crackdown began in Iran earlier this month, says its confirmed death toll, including security forces, is now 6,563, while the number of fatalities still under investigation is 17,091. More than 49,000 people have been arrested.
Some estimates by officials quoted off the record by various media outlets put the death toll at several times higher.
Iran has been in turmoil since December 28, 2025, when peaceful protesters began taking to the streets in Tehran to demand authorities act to stop spiraling inflation and a sagging currency.
Economic Protests Widen
The unrest spread throughout the country and into a broader antiestablishment action, prompting a massive and deadly response from authorities that prompted outrage around the world.
In recent years, Western financial sanctions have severely damaged the Iranian economy, which has occasionally led to street unrest amid rising prices and shortages of crucial goods and energy supplies.
The current unrest is widely seen as the biggest challenge to the Islamic republic since it came about in 1979.
Crippling Sanctions Reimposed
Iran agreed to a landmark 2015 deal — the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) — with world powers aimed at preventing it from developing a nuclear weapon in return for an easing of economic sanctions.
But it started to roll back its commitments after Trump, in his first term, withdrew the United States from the deal in 2018 and reimposed crippling sanctions against Tehran.
Iran suspended cooperation with the International Atomic Energy Agency in July 2025 in response to the US and Israeli bombing of its key nuclear sites in Fordow, Isfahan, and Natanz.
“Hopefully Iran will quickly “Come to the Table” and negotiate a fair and equitable deal – NO NUCLEAR WEAPONS – one that is good for all parties,” Trump said in a social media post on January 28.
“Time is running out, it is truly of the essence! As I told Iran once before, MAKE A DEAL! They didn’t, and there was ‘Operation Midnight Hammer,’ a major destruction of Iran. The next attack will be far worse!”
Iran’s foreign minister has signaled a readiness to resume nuclear talks with Washington, although Tehran once again drew red lines around its missile program and defensive capabilities.
Speaking on January 30 in Istanbul, Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi said Tehran would be prepared to re-enter negotiations with Washington if talks were conducted on what he described as a “fair and equitable” basis.
Araqchi told a news conference that Iran was open to “confidence-building” measures related to its nuclear program but stressed that Iran’s military posture was non-negotiable.
“Iran’s defensive capabilities and missiles will never be the subject of any negotiation,” he said. He added that no direct talks between Tehran and Washington were currently planned, seemingly in contradiction to Trump’s remarks about “negotiations.”
Iran’s presidency said President Masud Pezeshkian told Erdogan that any successful negotiation would depend on the abandonment of “warmongering and threatening actions in the region.”
The presidency later said Pezeshkian told Egyptian President Abdel Fatah El-Sisi in a call that Iran “has never sought, and in no way seeks, war and it is firmly convinced that a war would be in the interest of neither Iran, nor the United States, nor the region.”
Ali Larijani, head of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, said that “contrary to the hype of the contrived media war, structural arrangements for negotiations are progressing.
Larijani made the comments on January 31, a day after Russia said he held talks in Moscow with President Vladimir Putin.
