He hoped that Tehran made a deal with Washington.
“There is another beautiful armada floating beautifully towards Iran right now,” Trump said in a speech.
“I hope they make a deal.”
Since Iran earlier launched the crackdown on protests accompanied by a blanket internet blackout, Trump has given mixed signals on intervention which some opponents of the clerical leadership see as the only way to bring about change.
“We have a big armada next to Iran. Bigger than Venezuela,” Trump told the Axios news site this week, weeks after US military action resulted in the capture of the Latin American nation’s president Nicolas Maduro.
But he added: “They want to make a deal. I know so. They called on numerous occasions. They want to talk.”
A strike group led by the USS Abraham Lincoln has now arrived in Middle Eastern waters, US Central Command said earlier this week, without revealing its precise location.
