Iran held annual military drills with Russia on Thursday as a second US aircraft carrier approached the Middle East, where the United States and Iran have signaled they are ready for war if talks over Tehran’s nuclear program collapse.
President Donald Trump has said he hopes to reach a deal with Iran, but talks have stalled for years, and Iran has refused to budge on American and Israeli demands to scale back its missile program and cut ties with armed groups. Informal talks held in recent weeks have made little tangible progress, and one or both sides may be buying time to prepare for a final battle.
Iran’s democracy is more vulnerable than ever, following 12 days of Israeli and US strikes on its nuclear and military facilities last year, and mass protests in January that were violently suppressed. But it still manages to hit Israeli and American bases in the region, and has warned that any attack would trigger a regional war.
Iran earlier this week launched a drill involving a fire in the Strait of Hormuz, a small opening in the Persian Gulf through which a fifth of the world’s oil trade passes.
It is also tense inside Iran, as mourners hold ceremonies to honor the protesters killed 40 days after they were killed by the military. Some gatherings saw anti-government chants despite threats from the authorities.
Trump also threatens Iran
The movement of additional American warships and aircraft, and the USS Gerald R. Ford aircraft carrier near the Mediterranean Sea, does not guarantee an American strike on Iran – but it strengthens Trump’s ability to act unilaterally if he chooses to do so.
He has so far held his own in attacking Iran after drawing red lines over the killing of peaceful protesters and mass killings, while rejoining nuclear talks that were marred by war in June.
Iran has agreed to make a written proposal to address US concerns raised during indirect nuclear talks this week in Geneva, according to a US official who was not authorized to comment publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity.
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The official said top national security officials met on Wednesday to discuss Iran, and were told that “total forces” were needed to carry out a potential war by mid-March. The official did not give a timeline for when Iran is expected to deliver its written response.
“It seems that, over the years, it’s not easy to make a reasonable deal with Iran, and we have to make a reasonable deal. Otherwise, bad things happen,” Trump said on Thursday.
Growing international concern
Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk urged his country’s citizens to leave Iran immediately as “within a few hours, a dozen, or even a few hours, the possibility of exit will be out of the question.” He didn’t elaborate, and the Polish Embassy in Tehran didn’t seem to discourage its staff.
The German military said it had removed a “mid-digit number of non-essential personnel” from northern Iraq due to the current situation in the region and in line with the actions of its partners. It said some soldiers remained to help keep the multinational camp operating in Irbil, where they train Iraqi soldiers.
“This week, another 50 US fighter jets – F-35s, F-22s, F-16s – were ordered to the region, adding to the hundreds sent to bases in the Arab Gulf states,” writes the Soufan Center of New York. “The deployment reinforces Trump’s threat – repeated almost daily – to continue a massive air and missile campaign against the kingdom if negotiations fail.”
Iran is involved with Russia
Iran’s military and Russian sailors have conducted annual exercises in the Gulf of Oman and the Indian Ocean aimed at “enhancing cooperation and military information sharing,” Iran’s state-run IRNA news agency said.
Pictures later released by Iran showed members of the Revolutionary Guard’s special forces boarding a ship for the mission. Those forces are believed to have been used in the past to intercept ships on major international waterways.
Iran also issued a rocket warning to pilots in the region, suggesting it plans to launch anti-ship missiles in the operation.
Meanwhile, tracking data showed the Ford off the coast of Morocco in the Atlantic Ocean on Wednesday afternoon, meaning the carrier could be passing Gibraltar and could be on station in the eastern Mediterranean with its guided-missile destroyers.
Once in the region, it will be able to help protect Israel and Jordan in the event of war. The US used the same equipment to protect Israel during the recent conflict related to the Israel-Hamas war in the Gaza Strip.
Israel is making its own preparations for a possible Iranian missile attack in response to any American action.
“We are prepared for any situation,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Thursday, adding that if Iran attacks Israel, “they will get a response they cannot even imagine.”
Netanyahu, who met with Trump last week, has long insisted that the US take tough action against Iran and says any deal should not only end its nuclear program but curb its missile arsenal and force it to cut ties with opposition groups such as Hamas and Hezbollah.
Iran has said current talks should focus only on its nuclear program, and that it has not enriched uranium since the US and Israel struck last summer. Trump said at the time that the strikes had “destroyed” Iran’s nuclear facilities, but the exact extent of the damage was unknown as Tehran blocked international inspectors.
Iran has always maintained that its nuclear program is peaceful, while the US and others suspect that it is aimed at keeping weapons. Israel is believed to have nuclear weapons but has neither confirmed nor denied it.
© 2026 The Canadian Press
