US President Donald Trump has reiterated his call for Iran to "make a deal" over its nuclear program or face a "far worse attack" than the one aimed at the country last year when US and Israeli air strikes pummeled Iranian nuclear sites.
Trump has been threatening military strikes against Iran in the wake of a brutal crackdown on antiestablishment protests that rights groups and eyewitness accounts say left thousands dead.
The United States in recent days has deployed jet fighters, air defenses, and what Trump has called an "armada" to the Middle East, a move that has heightened tensions with Iran and increased the likelihood of military action according to experts.
"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!"
US Central Command said on January 27 that a US aircraft carrier group, led by the USS Abraham Lincoln, was in Middle East waters.
Speaking before Trump's comments, Iran's foreign minister said negotiations with Washington cannot take place in an atmosphere of threats of military action.
Abbas Araqhchi was quoted by the ISNA state news agency on January 28 as saying that "conducting diplomacy through military threat cannot be effective or useful."
He added that he had "no contact" with US envoy Steve Witkoff in recent days and that "Iran has not sought negotiations." Trump said in an interview with Axios on January 26 that Tehran has "called on numerous occasions."
Tanking Economy
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.
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.
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 6,221, while the number of fatalities still under investigation is 17,091. More than 42,000 people have been arrested.
Some estimates by officials quoted off the record by various media outlets put the death toll at several times higher.
Failed Nuclear Deal
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.
The sanctions related to the nuclear deal and other issues have severely damaged the Iranian economy, which has sometimes 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.
The sanctions have also stymied Iranian industry as important sectors have been cut off from replacement parts and other resources.
Tehran has remained defiant in the face of Western pressure concerning its nuclear program and uranium-enrichment procedures. It says the program is strictly for civilian purposes and denies the country is attempting to build nuclear weapons.
Separately, the US Department of Homeland Security said it had deported three Iranians who had illegally entered the United States and were former members of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC), which Washington has designated as a terrorist organization.
It was not clear what function the three Iranians had at the IRGC, a powerful, elite branch of Iran’s armed forces. The IRGC operates independently of Iran's regular military and reports directly to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
