Iran holds military drills with Russia as US aircraft carrier nears Middle East

Iran held annual military drills with Russia on Thursday as a second American aircraft carrier drew closer to the Middle East with both the United States and Iran signalling they are prepared for war if talks on Tehrans nuclear program fizzle outPresident Donald Trump has said he hopes to reach a deal with Iran but the talks have been deadlocked for years and Iran has refused to discuss wider US and Israeli demands that it scale back its missile program and sever ties to armed groups Indirect talks held in recent weeks made little visible progress and one or both sides could be buying time for final war preparationsIrans theocracy is more vulnerable than ever following 12 days of Israeli and US strikes on its nuclear sites and military last year as well as mass protests in January that were violently suppressed But it is still capable of striking Israel and US bases in the region and has warned that any attack would trigger a regional warIran earlier this week launched a drill that involved livefire in the Strait of Hormuz the narrow opening of the Persian Gulf through which a fifth of the worlds traded oil passes Tensions are also rising inside Iran as mourners hold ceremonies honoring slain protesters 40 days after their killing by security forces Some gatherings have seen antigovernment chants despite threats from authoritiesTrump again threatens IranThe movements of additional American warships and airplanes with the USS Gerald R Ford aircraft carrier near the mouth of the Mediterranean Sea dont guarantee a US strike on Iran but it bolsters Trumps ability to carry out one should he choose to do so He has so far held off on striking Iran after setting red lines over the killing of peaceful protesters and mass executions while reengaging in nuclear talks that were disrupted by the war in JuneIran has agreed to draw up a written proposal to address US concerns raised during this weeks indirect nuclear talks in Geneva according to a senior US official who was not authorized to comment publicly and spoke on the condition of anonymityThe official said top national security officials gathered Wednesday to discuss Iran and were briefed that the full forces needed to carry out potential military action are expected to be in place by midMarch The official did not provide a timeline for when Iran is expected to deliver its written response Its proven to be over the years not easy to make a meaningful deal with Iran and we have to make a meaningful deal Otherwise bad things happen Trump said ThursdayGrowing international concernPolish Prime Minister Donald Tusk urged his nations citizens to immediately leave Iran as within a few a dozen or even a few dozen hours the possibility of evacuation will be out of the question He did not elaborate and the Polish Embassy in Tehran did not appear to be drawing down its staffThe German military said that it had moved a midtwo digit number of nonmission critical personnel out of a base in northern Iraq because of the current situation in the region and in line with its partners actions It said that some troops remain to help keep the multinational camp running in Irbil where they train Iraqi forcesThis week another 50 US combat aircraft F35s F22s and F16s were ordered to the region supplementing the hundreds deployed to bases in the Arab Gulf states the New Yorkbased Soufan Center think tank wrote The deployments reinforce Trumps threat restated on a nearly daily basis to proceed with a major air and missile campaign on the regime if talks failThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever