Listen to this articleListen to this article | 4 minsinfoDonald Trump has appeared to confirm that the United States is looking to further shore up military assets in the Middle East despite ongoing diplomacy to ease tensions with Iran.The US president shared on his Truth Social platform on Thursday, without comment, a Wall Street Journal article titled “Pentagon Prepares Second Aircraft Carrier to Deploy to the Middle East”.Recommended Stories list of 3 itemsend of listThe story cited US officials as saying that the Pentagon ordered the military to prepare an aircraft carrier strike group for deployment to the region to join the USS Abraham Lincoln, which is already there.The reporting came hours after Trump hosted Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who has been pushing for hawkish policies against Tehran, at the White House and reaffirmed his preference for a diplomatic deal with Iran.“There was nothing definitive reached other than I insisted that negotiations with Iran continue to see whether or not a Deal can be consummated,” Trump wrote after the meeting with Netanyahu.“If it can, I let the Prime Minister know that will be a preference. If it cannot, we will just have to see what the outcome will be.”Last week, the US and Iran held their first round of indirect talks since last year in Oman. Both Washington and Tehran have said they would continue on the diplomatic path, but no further talks have been scheduled publicly yet.Tehran has warned Washington against allowing Netanyahu to spoil the ongoing diplomatic push.“Our negotiations are exclusively with the United States – we are not engaged in any talks with Israel,” Iran’s security chief Ali Larijani told Al Jazeera on Wednesday. Advertisement “However, Israel has inserted itself into this process, with their intent on undermining and sabotaging these negotiations.”Later on Thursday, Trump denied that Netanyahu was lobbying him against talks with Iran.“I’ll talk to them as long as I like, and we’ll see if we can get a deal with them,” he told reporters.The US president added that an agreement with Iran could be reached next month, stressing that Tehran should agree to a deal “quickly”.Trump has said that he is seeking an agreement that would ensure that Iran has “no nuclear weapons” and “no missiles”.But Iran, which denies seeking nuclear weapons, has ruled out any concessions over its missile arsenal. Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi told Al Jazeera last week that the missile programme is a defence issue that is “never negotiable”.Trump has repeatedly w …
