Iran-Trump latest: ‘Hopefully we’ll make a deal’, declares US president amid soaring tensions in Middle East

Donald Trump has responded to comments from Iran’s leader that a US strike could cause a regional war, saying that if a deal wasn’t reached “we’ll find out whether or not he was right”.

Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei warned earlier on Sunday that any US attack would result in a "regional war" in the Middle East.

Speaking to reporters in response to the comments, President Trump said: “We have the biggest, most powerful ships in the world over there.

“Hopefully we’ll make a deal. If we don’t make a deal, then we’ll find out whether or not he was right.”

According to Donald Trump, Iran does “want to do a deal” which would, in theory, preserve the power of the present regime in return for ending its nuclear weapons programme. On the face of it, that is an offer that the supreme leader of Iran, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, cannot refuse.

It is an offer that he cannot refuse, in the old mafiosi sense, because the overwhelming firepower available to the United States could destroy the current Iranian state. It is also an offer that, rationally, it would be wise for the regime to accept for the basic purposes of self-preservation.

After all, despite the president’s earlier vocal support for the Iranian protesters and promise that “help is coming”, the only tangible effect of US policy has been to deter the mass hangings of anti-regime Iranians arrested in the recent disturbances.

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Iran’s foreign minister said he was “confident that we can achieve a deal” with the US on Tehran’s nuclear weapons program.

Speaking to CNN Sunday, Abbas Araghchi said there were parties wanting to drag Donald Trump in to a war for their own gain.

He said a meaningful negotiation between the two countries should be based on trust.

“Unfortunately, we have lost our trust [in] the US as a negotiating partner,” he said, adding that the exchange of messages through mediating countries was still able to facilitate “fruitful” talks.

“It is obvious to us that there are certain elements, certain parties, that want to drag President Trump into this war for their own benefits and I think President Trump is wise enough to make the correct decision.”

Iran's parliament speaker said today that the Islamic Republic now considers all European Union militaries to be terrorist groups.

The speaker's comments come after Europe declared Tehran's paramilitary Revolutionary Guard a terror group over its deadly crackdown on nationwide protests.

"By seeking to strike at the (Guard), which itself has been the greatest barrier to the spread of terrorism to Europe, Europeans have in fact shot themselves in the foot and, once again through blind obedience to the Americans, decided against the interests of their own people," the speaker Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf said.

The total number of confirmed deaths in Iran’s deadly crackdown has hit 6,713, while 17,091 cases are under investigation, according to US-based HRANA rights group.

Of those confirmed dead, 137 were under 18. Another 6,305 were reported as “protesters”, 214 were members of government-affiliated forces and 57 were “civilian, non-protesters”.

The number of injured civilians stands at 11,021, with 84 student arrests, 295 cases of forced confessions, and 11,028 summonses reported.

Mehdi Mahmoudian, an Oscar-nominated screenwriter, has been arrested in Tehran just days after he and 16 others signed a statement condemning Islamic Republic leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and the regime's violent crackdown.

Mr Mahmoudian who wrote Iranian drama "It Was Just an Accident” was arrested on Saturday, according to his representatives. No details on the charges against him were available.

Two other signatories, Vida Rabbani and Abdullah Momeni, were also arrested.

Jafar Panahi, the prize-winning director of the film, said: "Mehdi Mahmoudian is not just a human-rights activist and a prisoner of conscience; he is a witness, a listener, and a rare moral presence — a presence whose absence is immediately felt, both inside prison walls and beyond them.”

Donald Trump has renewed his threat of military action against Iran, urging the Islamic Republic to make a ‘deal’ or face the consequences with a “massive armada” already en route to the region.

The US president said on Wednesday that time was running out for Tehran to avoid a repeat of last summer’s strikes against the country’s nuclear facilities, warning this time would be “far worse”.

The U.S. has been seeking a deal to curb Iran’s nuclear programme even after claiming to have totally destroyed it in a bombing campaign last June. However, officials fear the programme was not destroyed and that the regime has been reconstituting it. Iran denies trying to make a bomb, but says it is open to talks.

The decision to move a carrier strike group to the region gives Trump a wider range of options than he had earlier this month, when he vowed to come to the rescue of anti-government protesters being brutally killed and targeted by the regime.

But U.S. bases and partners in the region will be fearing an Iranian retaliation after regime officials threatened an ‘unprecedented’ response if provoked. The Independent looks at what is likely to happen next in Iran.

James C. Reynolds reports:

Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said that if the U.S. attacked Iran, it would become a regional conflict, the semi-official Tasnim news agency reported on Sunday.

"America should know that if it starts a war, this time it will be a regional war. These threats are nothing new. In the past as well, American officials repeatedly talked about war and said that all options were on the table including war.”

He added: "We are not the ones who start a war and we do not want to attack any country, but if America attacks or harms Iran the Iranian nation will deliver a strong blow and any war started by America will spread across the region."