U.S. President Donald Trump on Thursday urged Iran's leadership to sit down and talk with him about giving up Tehran's nuclear program and said he could not rule out a military confrontation given the heightened tensions between the two countries.
At an impromptu news conference at the White House, Trump declined to say what prompted him to deploy the USS Abraham Lincoln carrier group to the region over what was described as unspecified threats.
"We have information that you don't want to know about," said Trump. "They were very threatening and we have to have great security for this country and many other places."
Trump was asked whether there was a risk of military confrontation with the American military presence in the area.
"I guess you could say that always, right? I don't want to say no, but hopefully, that won't happen. We have one of the most powerful ships in the world that is loaded up and we don't want to do anything," he said.
Trump has expressed a willingness to meet Iranian leaders in the past to no avail and renewed that appeal in talking to reporters.
"What they should be doing is calling me up, sitting down. We can make a deal, a fair deal, we just don't want them to have nuclear weapons — not too much to ask. And we would help put them back to great shape."
He added: "They should call. If they do, we're open to talk to them."
On Thursday the U.S. military announced that the B-52 bombers ordered by the White House to deploy to the Persian Gulf to counter the unspecified threats from Iran have arrived at a major American air base in Qatar.
Images released by the U.S. Air Force's Central Command show B-52H Stratofortress bombers arriving at Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar on Thursday night.
Others landed at an undisclosed location Wednesday in "southwest Asia," the Air Force said. The U.S. military in the past has described its presence at both the Al Dhafra Air Base in the United Arab Emirates and Al Udeid as "southwest Asia."
The Air Force identified the aircraft as coming from the 20th Bomb Squadron of Barksdale Air Force Base in Louisiana.
On Wednesday, Iran announced it would begin backing away from its nuclear deal with world powers, a year after Trump pulled America from the accord. President Hassan Rouhani gave European leaders a 60-day deadline to find a way to shield Iran from U.S. sanctions targeting its economy and oil industry, otherwise he said Tehran would begin to enrich uranium at levels closer to weapons-grade levels.
The European Union on Thursday urged Iran to respect the international agreement curbing the Islamic Republic's nuclear ambitions, and added that the bloc aims to continue trading with the country despite U.S. sanctions. But so far, the EU and its member nations have not offered any new plans.
