Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, issued a direct threat to the United States, saying Iran had weapons capable of sending American warships “to the bottom of the sea”, as the two sides resumed nuclear negotiations in Geneva amid soaring tensions. He shared an AI-generated image showing the USS Gerald R. Ford aircraft carrier heavily damaged and sinking.
“The Americans constantly say that they’ve sent a warship toward Iran,” Khamenei posted on the social platform X. “Of course, a warship is a dangerous piece of military hardware.”
“However, more dangerous than that warship is the weapon that can send that warship to the bottom of the sea,” he added.
Khamenei also dismissed US claims of unmatched military strength. “The US president claims that his country has the strongest military in the world. Yet even the world’s strongest army can sometimes be slapped so hard that it would not be able to get back on its feet,” he said.
IRAN’S THREAT AMID NUCLEAR TALKS
The latest threat comes as Iranian and US officials met in Geneva on Tuesday for a second round of discussions on Iran’s nuclear programme and possible limits on uranium enrichment. The talks aim to revive or replace arrangements that collapsed after Washington withdrew from the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).
Negotiators have reported limited progress and agreed on preliminary principles for a possible agreement, but major disagreements remain over uranium enrichment.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi, who was leading Tehran’s delegation, said Iran and the US reached an understanding on the main “guiding principles.”
Speaking to Iranian media, he said, “Different ideas have been presented, these ideas have been seriously discussed, ultimately we’ve been able to reach a general agreement on some guiding principles, from now on we will move based on those principles and enter the text of a potential agreement.”
US officials are seeking a new nuclear deal with Iran after the Trump administration exited the JCPOA, which had imposed limits on Iran’s nuclear activity in exchange for sanctions relief. US President Donald Trump said on Friday he hoped negotiations would succeed but warned failure would be a “bad day for Iran, very bad.”
The United States has deployed the USS Gerald R. Ford, the world’s largest aircraft carrier, to the Middle East, where it will join the USS Abraham Lincoln and other American warships already operating in the US Central Command area.
Iran has meanwhile conducted maritime military exercises with live missiles in the Strait of Hormuz this week, a strategic route for global oil shipments.
