Trump says Iran 'talking to' US and hints at deal to avoid military strikes
Source: The Guardian
Sat 31 Jan 2026 17.28 EST
First published on Sat 31 Jan 2026 17.21 EST
Donald Trump has said Iran is “talking to” the US and hinted at a deal to avoid the use of military strikes. “[Iran is] talking to us, and we’ll see if we can do something, otherwise we’ll see what happens … We have a big fleet heading out there,” he told Fox News. “They are negotiating.”
Trump added that US allies in the region were not being told of plans for possible strikes due to security reasons. He has threatened to intervene in Iran in the wake of a deadly crackdown on anti-government protests.
“Well, we can’t tell them the plan. If I told them the plan, it would be almost as bad as telling you the plan – it could be worse, actually,” he said.
Washington has deployed a naval battle group led by the USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier off Iran’s shores, after Trump threatened to intervene in response to a deadly crackdown on anti-government protests. In remarks made later on Saturday, Trump declined to say whether he’d made a decision on what he wanted to do regarding Iran.
Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/jan/31/trump-hints-at-deal-with-iran-to-avoid-military-strikes