Hours before talks in Islamabad, US President Donald Trump said on Friday that US warships are being reloaded with weapons to strike Iran if talks in Pakistan do not produce a deal. He said that if the deal does not work out, the US will use the weapons “very effectively”.
In an interview with the New York Post, Trump said, “We have a reset going. We’re loading up the ships with the best ammunition, the best weapons ever made — even better than what we did previously, and we blew them apart.”
“And if we don’t have a deal, we will be using them, and we will be using them very effectively.”
Trump’s comments come after US Vice President JD Vance headed to Pakistan for high-level talks with officials in Iran. Before his departure, Vance said he believed talks with Iran would be “positive”. However, he said that if Iran tried to “play” the US, they would find that “the negotiating team is not that receptive.”
The talks are taking place amidst ongoing hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah and Iran’s continued control over the crucial Strait of Hormuz.
Iran has asserted that the scheduled talks for Saturday would not proceed unless Israel halted its strikes in Lebanon. Next week, the US is expected to initiate negotiations between Israel and Lebanon.
Key parts of Islamabad are locked down because of the talks and barricades are erected along routes from the airport to the city before the delegations arrived.
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