President issues warning as warships deployed to Middle East but says ‘it would be great if we didn’t have to use them’
Donald Trump has warned Iran it must end its nuclear programme and stop killing protesters if the large US armada of warships deployed in the Middle East are not be used.
The US president said protestrs were being killed in their thousands, but that he had stopped Iran from carrying out executions.
Trump was speaking at the premiere of the documentary Melania as the Iranian foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, landed in Turkey to discuss whether there is a basis for a deal with the US. He is due to meet the Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, but in his initial remarks Araghchi gave little sign of a breakthrough.
Trump told reporters he had been speaking to the Iranians and intended to do so more, but it was not clear whether he simply meant he was speaking to the Iranian government through intermediaries.
